It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, July 22, 2024
Indian coast guard battling fire aboard vessel in Arabian sea Published: 20 Jul 2024 -
AFP
New Delhi: Three Indian Coast Guard ships were battling a major fire Saturday aboard a cargo vessel in the Arabian Sea after it picked up a distress call, the organisation said.
The vessel MV Maersk Frankfurt reported explosions on its front deck on Friday, 6.5 nautical miles (12 kilometres) south of Karwar while sailing from India's Gujarat state to Colombo in Sri Lanka.
"Ships Sujeet, Sachet and Samrat have been fighting the fire for over 12 hours, preventing its spread," the India Coast Guard said in a statement Saturday posted on social media platform X.
It posted images and videos showing the firefighting effort.
No casualties were reported from the merchant vessel.
The coast guard said a Donier aircraft was conducting aerial assessments and that an additional plane was also in position for search and rescue.
It said another ship was also despatched from Mumbai and likely to join the effort by Sunday.
The Indian Express newspaper reported the MV Maersk Frankfurt was carrying International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) cargo, quoting an unnamed coast guard spokesperson.
It said the firefighting operation was being carried out "amid rough seas and inclement weather conditions".
On Wednesday the Indian navy rescued nine crew members and recovered one body from the Comorian-flagged MV Prestige Falcon oil tanker that had capsized off the coast of Oman earlier this week.
China's top diplomat Wang Yi urges Canada to 'seriously reflect' on
strained ties
South China Morning Post
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Canada to "seriously reflect" on their strained relationship, calling for an improvement as he cited "no fundamental conflict of interest" between the two countries.
In a meeting with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly in Beijing on Friday, Wang held up Canada ties as being "at the forefront" of China's relations with Western economies.
But he also pointed to "difficulties and twists" in recent years.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
"[That] is not what China wants to see and requires Canada to seriously reflect on it," he said, according to a readout published by the Chinese foreign ministry.
"There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and Canada, and the two peoples have a long history of friendly exchanges."
China and Canada, as major countries with important influence in Asia-Pacific, have "extensive common interests" and maintaining and developing relations is in the interests of both sides, Wang was quoted as saying.
China-Canada ties have soured in recent years, partly due to the tit-for-tat arrests in 2018, when a top Huawei Technologies executive was held in Vancouver on fraud charges at the request of the US, followed by China detaining two Canadians living in the country on charges of espionage.
Canada had accused China of engaging in "hostage diplomacy" before a deal was eventually reached with US prosecutors in 2021 that saw all three people released.
Relations were further strained over accusations of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections and an attempted intimidation of lawmakers that resulted in the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat last year.
China has repeatedly denied claims of interference.
According to Wang, China and Canada needed to treat each other with mutual respect, handle differences in the spirit of seeking common ground, and deepen cooperation based on mutual benefit.
The two sides should "promote the improvement of bilateral relations and move forward along a healthy and stable track", he said.
The Chinese and Canadian delegations discussed bilateral issues as well as global ones like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to a Canadian readout. Photo: Xinhua alt=The Chinese and Canadian delegations discussed bilateral issues as well as global ones like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to a Canadian readout. Photo: Xinhua>
With next year marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Canada strategic partnership, the two countries should "return to their original intentions", and "inject momentum into the normalisation of bilateral relations", Wang said.
He called on both countries to explore dialogue and cooperation in various fields, and urged Canada to take "practical actions" to facilitate personnel exchanges.
Wang also said issues relating to Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong were part of China's domestic politics and that Canada should not interfere in them.
According to a Canadian readout, the two ministers held an "extended" meeting, where they discussed bilateral issues as well as global ones such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Joly told Wang that Canada would "continue to defend our democracy and the values it has always stood for, including human rights, the rule of law, and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter".
The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen engagements in areas including trade and environmental protection, and agreed to advance "concrete measures" to promote people-to-people ties, such as for tourists and students.
"The ministers agreed on the importance of maintaining open lines of communication and committed to holding regular discussions at the ministerial level, including on peace and security, and trade," the Canadian readout said.
Joly is the first Canadian foreign minister to hold face-to-face talks with their Chinese counterpart in Beijing in nearly seven years. Her three-day visit to China ends today.
The Canadian statement said the visit reaffirmed Joly's commitment to "pragmatic engagement" with China and the development of "sound and stable" relations.
Chinese and Canadian leaders last met in Indonesia in November 2022, when President Xi Jinping criticised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over alleged leaks of discussions at a closed-door meeting.
In a phone call with Joly earlier this year, Wang said Beijing was open to maintaining dialogue with Canada and did not want to see a continuation of the "difficult situation".
He said then that the "serious deviation of Canada's perception of China" had led to ties reaching "a low point".
Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
ICJ: 'Israel's policy of racial segregation and apartheid'
Issuing its advisory opinion in respect of the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said today that Israel is in breach of Article 3 of ICERD which is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Thus Israel is practicing both racial discrimination and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.
BALKAN BLOG: Serbia signals its geopolitical alignment with EU lithium deal
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during their visit to Belgrade on July 19, when they secured access to lithium, a critical material for the green transition. / bundeskanzler.de
Serbia is back in the EU’s good books. Thanks to the country’s large lithium reserves, EU politicians have been trying to woo the Balkan state, repeating a mantra which verges on possessive: “Serbia belongs to the EU”. And Serbia is reciprocating. Rather than the usual carping, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic is singing Europe’s praises and pledging loyalty to Brussels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz went on the diplomatic offensive on July 19, making a rare visit to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. There, along with European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, Scholz signed a memorandum of understanding with Serbia on a strategic partnership in raw materials, namely lithium. This will guarantee the EU access to the critical mineral used in mobile batteries and electric vehicles (EVs), which is crucial for the EU’s green transition, and also for Germany’s car industry.
The agreement is historic, and a clear demonstration of where Serbia’s loyalties lie. At a time when the country is being courted by China, Russia and the Gulf States, Serbia is promising its lithium reserves to Europe, and it has chosen an Anglo-Australian company, Rio Tinto, to open the mine. According to the Financial Times, when Chinese carmakers showed interest in Serbia’s lithium, they were basically told to jog on: “We are loyal to Europe,” said Vucic.
Some may say that this is just rhetoric, the usual posturing that disguises real loyalties to Russia or China, and is no indication that Serbia is pivoting Westwards. But if we look at the past two decades and more, since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, Serbia’s fundamental orientation has always been to Europe. The new government has reaffirmed this, and by signing an agreement on lithium it has made actions speak louder than words.
Serbia’s alignment with the EU makes economic sense. In terms of cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) and external trade, the EU is Serbia’s most important economic partner by far. FDI coming from the EU accounted for more than 59% of total inflows from 2010 until 2022. In terms of the value of goods, in 2022 Germany had twice the volume of trade with Serbia as any other foreign trade partner. This increased by a further 13% in 2023, reaching a record €9bn.
China is certainly catching up. In 2023 it was the largest single-country investor in Serbia, accounting for more than a third of total annual FDI inflows, and it recently signed a free trade deal with Serbia. But in January to May this year, the EU remained Serbia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 60.3% of the total exchange. Russia, often pegged as Serbia’s main patron, has a relatively minor presence in terms of the economy. Apart from its monopoly on natural gas and crude oil supplies (which Serbia is trying to diversify), Serbia’s trade with Russia is limited.
Despite its close ties with the EU, Serbia has struggled to shake off the view, prominent in the Anglophone world, that it is some kind of Russian proxy. Historically, Serbia has had close relations with Russia and Moscow remains an important political ally by exercising its UN security council vote to support Serbia’s claim to sovereignty over Kosovo. However, for well over a decade Serbia has deliberately pursued a foreign policy that does not privilege any one power. Instead it has chosen to pursue a balancing foreign policy and cultivated relations with other important players, including the EU, the US, China, Turkey and the UAE.
Attaining EU membership remains a priority for Serbia’s foreign policy, but long delays in the accession process have encouraged the Western Balkan country to build external economic ties wherever it can to grow the economy. As Serbia’s national bank governor, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, said recently, instead of waiting around at the EU’s door, Serbia has “dared to have its own path and to be different”.
For a small country in the borderlands between East and West, it makes sense to keep all options open. And Serbia has a history to draw upon: Belgrade was once at the centre of non-aligned Yugoslavia, which sought to maintain autonomy and refused to be drawn into the conflict between East and West during the Cold War.
The lithium deal, among other things, demonstrates that Serbia remains wedded to the EU, even as it seeks to maintain good relations with other powers. Who knows, the deal could even give new impetus to Serbia’s accession negotiations with the EU, which have been on hold for some time.
Adidas drops Bella Hadid from campaign for 1972 Munich Olympics retro sneaker
Move follows outcry over having Palestinian activist as face of shoe first unveiled at games that were overshadowed by massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terror group
20 July 2024 Model Bella Hadid arrives for the screening of the film 'L'Amour Ouf' (Beating Hearts) at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 23, 2024. (Loic Venance/AFP)
Adidas said Friday it had dropped Palestinian-American supermodel and activist Bella Hadid from an advertising campaign for retro sneakers referencing the 1972 Munich Olympics, which were overshadowed by the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terror group.
The German sportswear giant recently relaunched the SL72, a shoe first showcased by athletes at the 1972 Olympics, as part of a series reviving old classic sneakers.
Eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed at the 1972 Munich Games after terrorists from the Palestinian Black September group broke into the Olympic village and took them hostage.
Hadid, who was born in the United States but has Palestinian roots through her father, has been vocal about her support for Palestinian rights since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 triggered the war in Gaza. She has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza — an allegation rejected as unfounded by Israel — and been accused by Israel and US Jewish groups of antisemitism.
Amid an outcry, Adidas had earlier said it would be “revising the remainder of the campaign” with immediate effect, without giving details. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email addressGET IT By signing up, you agree to the terms
“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events — though these are completely unintentional — and we apologize for any upset or distress caused,” the company said in a statement.
A new campaign for Adidas features supermodel Bella Hadid wearing a reissue of sneakers from the 1972 Munich Olympics. (Photos courtesy of Adidas. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg via JTA)
A spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that Hadid had been removed from the campaign, which notes that the shoes were first introduced in 1972 but never mentions the terror attack on the Israeli athletes.
Pictures of the American model wearing the retro Adidas shoes had caused an outcry among pro-Israeli and Jewish groups.
“Guess who the face of the campaign is? Bella Hadid, a model with Palestinian roots who has spread antisemitism in the past and incited violence against Israelis and Jews,” the Israeli embassy in Germany wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“How can Adidas now claim that the reference [to the events in Munich] was ‘completely unintentional’?” Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, said in response to the company’s climbdown.
“The terror of 1972 is etched into the collective memory of Germans and Israelis,” he told Die Welt TV on Friday.
A member of the terrorist group which seized members of the Israeli Olympic Team at their quarters at the Olympic Village appearing with a hood over his face stands on the balcony of the building where they held members of the Israeli team hostage in Munich, September 5, 1972. (AP/Kurt Strumpf)
The American Jewish Committee also condemned the Adidas campaign on X, calling it an “egregious error.”
“For Adidas to pick a vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory,” the AJC wrote. “Neither is acceptable.”
Hadid was among five celebrities, models, and athletes hired as models for the new SL72 campaign.
Adidas said it would be continuing the SL72 campaign with other famous faces including footballer Jules Kounde, singer Melissa Bon and model Sabrina Lan.
Hadid, whose father was born in Nazareth, has been a vocal activist for Palestinians since long before October 7, 2023, and frequently uses her large social media presence to advocate for and bring attention to pro-Palestinian causes. She and her sister Gigi Hadid have together donated $1 million to support multiple Palestinian relief efforts in Gaza, including HEAL Palestine, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, World Central Kitchen, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Hadid has occasionally shared misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war that started on October 7 when Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Hadid has taken part in several pro-Palestinian demonstrations during the conflict and has described Israel’s offensive as a “genocide.” She has been criticized for sharing social media posts downplaying the experiences of the Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
A flood of social media posts meanwhile expressed support for Hadid, criticized Adidas for axing the model, and called for a boycott of the company.
In late 2022, Adidas ended its contract with the US rapper now known formally as Ye after he triggered an outcry with a series of antisemitic social media posts.
At the 1972 Munich Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian terror group Black September broke into the Israeli Olympic team’s residence, immediately killing one coach and one member of the weightlifting team, and taking nine more Israeli team members hostage. All were killed during a botched rescue operation, as was a West German police officer.
The massacre was commemorated at the Olympics for the first time at the 2020 Games, held in 2021. Due to security concerns, this year’s commemorations in Paris are reportedly set to be held in an undisclosed location.
Hugely unpopular after years of economic crisis, 61-year-old Nicolas Maduro will nevertheless seek a third consecutive six-year term in elections on July 28, 2024 - Copyright AFP/File Brendan SMIALOWSKI
Patrick FORT
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has been written off many times during a turbulent decade in power. But the former bus driver and anointed heir of Hugo Chavez has stubbornly clung to the wheel.
With neither the charisma nor the flush oil revenues of his late revolutionary mentor, Maduro is accused by rights groups of embracing full-blown authoritarianism to hold on to power.
Hugely unpopular after years of economic crisis, the 61-year-old will still seek a third consecutive six-year term in July 28 elections — against a severely weakened political opposition in what critics call a campaign of relentless persecution.
Tall, and sporting a full mustache and slicked-back graying hair, Maduro was thrust into power as the handpicked successor of Chavez, who died of cancer in 2013 but is still hailed by many as a revolutionary hero.
Struggling to gain respect as the legitimate successor to Chavez, Maduro won his first election with a razor-thin margin.
Since then, he has fended off crisis after crisis, ruling with an increasingly iron fist and consolidating power even as life for the average Venezuelan grew ever more miserable.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled a dire economic crisis marked by runaway inflation and critical shortages as an oil boom went bust partly due to a plunge in global crude prices.
– Baseball and salsa –
Born in Caracas and a professed Marxist as well as a Christian who has “found God on my journey,” Maduro as a teenager played guitar in a rock band called Enigma.
He is a baseball fan and dances salsa.
Maduro became a union leader for workers on the Caracas metro and went to communist Cuba in the 1980s for a political education.
Elected to the National Assembly when Chavez swept to power, he rose to become speaker of the legislature before taking over as foreign minister in 2006 and then vice president in October 2012.
In December of that year, Chavez officially declared Maduro his successor before travelling to Cuba for cancer treatment.
He died three months later and Maduro took over, much to the surprise of even some in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
It was not the first nor last time Maduro was underestimated. In fact, he has embraced criticism that he is boorish and provincial, trying to cast himself as a “worker president.”
It has even been claimed that he deliberately misspeaks in English so as not to be mistaken as high-brow.
– ‘At war with imperialism’ –
As president, Maduro has weathered many threats imagined and real — including a failed explosive-laden drone attack in 2018 that injured several soldiers.
Activists say his government has clamped down ruthlessly on protests against his harsh rule and economic misery, which worsened as his nominally socialist government was forced to slash social spending.
Maduro successfully faced down sanctions that followed the non-recognition of his reelection in 2018, and focused on tightening control over the judiciary, legislature, military and state institutions.
The president has also benefited from close political and economic ties with China, Russia and other autocratic international actors that have helped the country stay barely afloat.
To deflect blame for Venezuela’s woes, Maduro has sustained Chavez’s anti-American conspiracy theories, accusing the United States of plotting to kill him and Western nations of ruining the once-thriving economy.
Maduro is accused of closing off virtually any channels for political dissent, locking up dissidents and challengers with little regard for due process.
His main rival, Maria Corina Machado, overwhelmingly won an opposition primary vote but has been disqualified from holding public office on the back of charges she and others claim are spurious.
Venezuela is under investigation for rights violations by the International Criminal Court.
Even as the country continued spiraling, Maduro showed himself to be adept at realpolitik.
Last year, he won an easing of US sanctions and other concessions by agreeing with the opposition to hold elections this year.
But he reneged on the conditions, and sanctions were snapped back in April, though Washington is allowing companies such as Chevron and Repsol to apply for individual licenses to keep operating in Venezuela.
Maduro is adept at using state media to spread his message and has sought to endear himself to a long-suffering population though a popular TV and internet cartoon character in his image.
Super-Bigote (Super Moustache) is a caped superhero “at war with imperialism.”
He has recently also adopted the emblem of a fighting cock, “Gallo Pinto,” to highlight his sprightliness relative to 74-year-old opposition challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — who is far ahead in polls.
In real life, Maduro often appears in public with his wife Cilia Flores, a former prosecutor he refers to as “First Combatant.”
Attendees holding a flag made from the American and Israeli flags during the 2024 Republican National Convention recently. Israeli settlers are working to convince Donald Trump and the Republican Party to drop longstanding US support for a Palestinian state. AFP PIC
Ruth Lieberman, a Jewish settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is determined to thwart international pressure for a sovereign Palestinian state.
And her friendships with prominent United States Republicans from the party's religious right are helping, she says.
Weeks after the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, Lieberman hosted pro-Israel, conservative Senator Mike Lee, a Mormon, for a Shabbat meal in her family home, Senate records show.
The conversation turned to Palestinian statehood, and Lieberman told Lee the attack had hardened Israeli opposition to the idea, she said in an interview from her home near Bethlehem, in Alon Shvut, within one of the West Bank's largest clusters of settlements, known as Gush Etzion.
Such visits are helping align the views of senior Republican Party officials with settlers and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu post-Oct 7, said Lieberman, a political consultant who often hosts US delegations visiting settlements.
"Having friends and voices like that in very high places in the US helps us," she said of Lee and US House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian who visited her family in February 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump, long before becoming speaker.
Ever since Oct 7, Lieberman and others have intensified their efforts, hoping to influence the Republican Party's position ahead of the November US election that could return Trump to office.
Reuters visited two Gush Etzion settlements and spoke to two dozen Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel, three current and former Trump aides and three evangelical leaders between March and July.
They are working to convince Trump and the Republican Party to drop longstanding US support for a Palestinian state, arguing it rewarded the Oct 7 violence.
While Trump has suggested US policy could change, neither he nor the party has been explicit about the position towards a Palestinian state if they win the election.
On Friday, the top United Nations court ruled the settlements were illegal.
Within Israel itself, two states remain the most popular way to peace, a May poll by Tel Aviv University showed, though support fell to only 33 per cent of respondents, from 43 per cent before Oct 7.
However, annexation of the West Bank by Israel and limiting rights for Palestinians living there had the support of 32 per cent of Israelis, from 27 per cent before Oct 7.
Ohad Tal, a lawmaker with the hardline Religious Zionism party who lives in Gush Etzion, said settler leaders who seek to annex West Bank lands permanently were increasingly looking to Trump and his evangelical allies for support.
Israeli Rabbi Pesach Wolicki has long advocated for cooperation between Israel's religious right and what he calls America's Christian Zionists.
From the night of Oct 7, Wolicki began gathering similar-minded leaders together in a campaign they called "Keep God's Land" that aims to influence Trump and the Republican Party to reject a two-state solution.
Keep God's Land says it has grown into a coalition of more than 1,000 Jewish and Christian faith leaders.
The conservatism and size of the US evangelical community, which numbers in the tens of millions, makes it an appealing ally for the Israeli right, said Rachel Moore, who has also received delegations of US Congress members and lives in the Gush Etzion settlement of Neve Daniel.
Israel's subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to figures from Gaza's Health Ministry.
A Pew survey in February found 33 per cent of US white evangelical Protestants supported the idea of a single state under Israeli control, up by four percentage points from 2022.
Keep God's Land gathered on April 15 at the headquarters of the Heritage Foundation, the leading conservative think-tank on Washington's Capitol Hill.
Speakers included senator and former Florida governor Rick Scott, Israeli lawmaker Tal and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who in March introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to use the biblical name Judea and Samaria in official US documents instead of the West Bank, right-wing Israeli's preferred term.
Since Oct 7, Netanyahu's government has accelerated to the fastest pace in 30 years plans to build on West Bank land.
This expansion has "one goal, which is displacing Palestinian from their lands", said Juliette Banoura, a Bethlehem resident who researches settlements.
Did the BBC report that China abused aliens on the moon?
Verdict: False
By Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab 2024.07.21 Taipei, Taiwan
Illustration by Paul Nelson/RFA; Images by Adobe Stock
Several Chinese social media users have shared what appears to be a BBC news report alongside a claim that the BBC reported China’s spaceship “abused aliens” on the moon.
But the claim is false. The screenshot shared on social media has been digitally altered. Keyword searches found no credible reports to back the claim.
The claim was shared on China’s Weibo social media platform on June 30.
“BBC said the Chinese spaceship abused aliens on the moon,” reads the claim.
The claim was shared alongside a screenshot of what appears to be a BBC report.
“BBC report: Chinese Spaceship Abusing Aliens on the Moon,” text in English superimposed on the screenshot reads.
The claim started spreading online after China’s robotic lunar mission, Chang’e 6, returned to Earth on June 25. It became the first lunar mission to collect samples from the far side of the moon.
The same screenshot with similar claims were shared on Weibo here and here as well as on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and here.
Several Chinese influencers claimed that the BBC had deliberately released a ridiculous report about the Chang’e lunar mission. (Screenshots /X and Weibo)
But the claim is false.
The BBC report
A reverse image search of the screenshot found the matching scene included in this BBC report on June 25, titled “China space probe returns to Earth with rare Moon rocks.”
A close look at the four-minute and 22-second report found no parts that back the claim.
The original BBC report was unrelated to aliens. (Screenshot /BBC official YouTube channel)
Keyword searches also found no credible reports that show the BBC reported China’s spaceship “abusing aliens” on the moon.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
