World

China Targets News Media in Xi Jinping’s Campaign to Expand Communist Party Control

From www.wsj.com
2021-10-12 15:55:00

Excerpt:

 

SINGAPORE—China’s Communist Party is ratcheting up its control over news media and online commentary, warning away private investors and cracking down on what it describes as misinformation, as it continues a campaign to assert itself more forcefully across the economy and Chinese society.

The country’s central economic planning agency released on Friday a draft regulation that promised to expand restrictions on the involvement of “nonpublic capital” in swaths of the news industry—a warning to news organizations with private funding to step carefully, according to analysts.

On the same day, authorities in southern China detained a well-known former journalist for allegedly insulting national martyrs in a post on social media that questioned the Communist Party’s account of the Korean War.

Both events come on the heels of other tightening moves, including a decision by China’s internet regulator at the end of August to muzzle over 1,000 independent…

 

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China stages aerial ‘military parade’ with record sorties near Taiwan

From www.washingtontimes.com
2021-10-03 14:17:20
David R. Sands
Excerpt:

 

China‘s military staged a massive show of intimidation over the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, dispatching bombers, fighter jets and other aircraft into Taiwan‘s defensive air space in two waves Friday and Saturday, by far the biggest such incursion in recent years.

The sorties, which brought a warning from the Biden administration condemning Beijing’s “coercion,” were hailed by China‘s nationalistic, state-controlled Global Times as the equivalent of staging a “National Day military parade” in the skies above the 100-mile…

 

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Party linked to Iran-backed militia to run in Iraq elections

From www.thenationalnews.com
2021-10-03 15:22:27

Excerpt:

 

An Iraqi political party, linked to a powerful militia, has announced plans to run in the country’s general elections for the first time while calling for the withdrawal of US troops.

The Huqooq Movement is the political wing of Kataib Hezbollah, the most high-profile Iran-backed militia in Iraq. They have been accused of targeting protesters during the October 2019 demonstrations.

“We are not radicals, instead, we’ve identified a problem and are seeking to restore rights through political means under the umbrella of the constitution,” Hussein Mounis, the party’s leader said during a press conference to announce their electoral programme.

Mr Mounes, who also used to go by the name of Abu Ali Al Askari, was the spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah.

He said the party has “the ability to achieve” its goals, which includes political and economic demands “with which we’ve defended the homeland and expelled anyone who wanted evil for this country.”

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Afghanistan experiencing serious crisis, socio-economic collapse looming: Josep Borrell

From www.bignewsnetwork.com
2021-10-03 17:37:00

Excerpt:

Brussels [Belgium], October 3 (ANI): EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said Afghanistan is facing a “serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming” that will prove to be dangerous for the region and international security.

“Afghanistan is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming, which would be dangerous for Afghans, the region and international security,” Borrell wrote in a blog post.

Borrell said that there are many signs that the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse.

“For instance, we have seen the formation of an interim government that is neither inclusive nor representative. And we have reports that women and girls are excluded from schools and universities, which goes against initial assurances from the Taliban,” he wrote.

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Central African Republic accuses Russians of conflict abuses

From nationalpost.com
2021-10-03 17:55:41

Excerpt:

BANGUI — Russian military instructors committed rights abuses in Central African Republic (CAR) during clashes with rebels this year, a government report said on Sunday, bolstering evidence produced in a United Nations report in June.

The army – backed by U.N. peacekeepers, Russian and Rwandan troops – has been battling rebels seeking to overturn a December vote in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera was declared the winner. Fighting has been fierce: in January rebels launched an assault on the capital Bangui that was repelled after a long gunfight.

 

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Deadly explosion at Eidgah mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan

From www.dailytelegraph.com.au
2021-10-03 21:57:17

Excerpt:

A blast has killed several people in a crowd outside the entrance of the Eidgah Mosque during a funeral service in central Kabul.

A bomb blast at the entrance of a mosque in Kabul has killed civilians.

Thought to be a roadside bomb near the Eidgah mosque gates, the explosion took place during a memorial service being held for the mother of the Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

People in bloodied clothing were seen arriving at the nearby Kabul Emergency Hospital on Sunday.

Three suspects were arrested in connection with the blast, a Taliban spokesman said.

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Afghan army collapse took US by ‘surprise’: Pentagon chief

From timesofindia.indiatimes.com
2021-09-28 17:39:59

Excerpt:

 

WASHINGTON: Top US military leaders acknowledged on Tuesday that the Taliban’s rapid takeover in Afghanistan took them by surprise and expressed concern the Islamic regime has not broken ties with al-Qaida.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,” defense secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuation.
“The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise,” he said. “It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”
Austin said the United States had provided the Afghan military “with equipment and aircraft and the skills to use them.”
“Over the years, they often fought bravely,” he said. “Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers died. But in the end, we couldn’t provide them with the will to win. At least not all of them”, he said.
The Pentagon chief said the United States “did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks.”
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States did not have a “full wholesome assessment of leadership morale and will” of the Afghan armed forces.

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France and Greece hedge their bets with a new defence pact

From www.economist.com
2021-10-01 01:07:51

Excerpt:

 

KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS, Greece’s prime minister, cast it as a love story. “History…wants us together,” he told Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, in Paris on September 28th. “So does geography.” He serenaded Mr Macron with tales of Ionian seafarers landing in Marseilles and the French Philhellenes who backed Greece’s war of independence. Mr Macron said that Greece was “a civilisation that has inspired us and enabled us to be ourselves”. Then the two leaders consummated their courtship with what they are calling a “strategic” defence pact.

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The Franco-Greek relationship has been forged in rivalry with Turkey, which last year squared off with Greek warships around Cyprus, and with French ones off Libya. An anti-Turkey bloc, including France, Greece, Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, has gradually taken shape. Mr Mitsotakis, eager to secure French support and bolster his own armed forces, had already agreed to buy 18 Rafale warplanes from France in January, at a cost of €2.5bn ($2.9bn), and six more in September. Now he will also buy three new French frigates, with the option of one more.

That is a boon for Greece’s navy, which has just 13 ageing frigates against Turkey’s newer fleet of 16. It is also a well-timed consolation prize for Naval Group, the majority-state-owned French arms firm which Australia turfed out of a lucrative sub marine contract on September 15th as part of its AUKUS pact with America and Britain. Naval Group is building the new frigates in Brittany; Greece is supposed to take delivery of its first in 2025.

 

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