Global News

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29929397

A Chinese navy ship fired live rounds on Saturday after issuing a warning through a radio broadcast, the New Zealand government said.

Personnel on a New Zealand naval frigate "observed live rounds being fired from the Zunyi's main gun, as would be expected during the course of such an exercise," the office of New Zealand's defense minister said in a statement.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said "we monitoring and shadowing and tracking the fleet."

It came a day after China conducted similar drills in international waters between Australia and New Zealand, which led to disruptions in flights.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Saturday that the government did not yet have "a satisfactory answer from China as to the question of the notice" of the drills, which he has said was "disconcerting" for commercial aviation.

Australia and New Zealand have been monitoring the three Chinese navy vessels — a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker — since they were seen off Australia's shores last week.

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29925608

Archived

A proposed dam in China’s Medog county would be the world’s largest hydroelectric project, surpassing even China’s Three Gorges Dam, which is currently the largest dam in the world. The Yarlung Tsangpo, originating from the Tibetan Plateau, flows into India as the Brahmaputra River and continues into Bangladesh as the Jamuna. And not surprisingly, China’s ambition has alarmed downstream countries.

Reports suggest that this dam could significantly alter water flow patterns, affecting millions of people who depend on the river for agriculture, fisheries, and daily consumption.

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India, which relies heavily on the Brahmaputra River, is likely to face serious hydrological challenges. The river provides water to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and other northeastern states, supporting nearly 130 million people and six million hectares of farmland. If China diverts or controls the river’s flow, India could experience unpredictable floods during monsoon seasons and severe droughts in dry months. A 2024 study published in the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs warned that China could manipulate water releases, potentially affecting India’s economic and strategic interests. Indian hydrologists have expressed concerns that sediment flow, crucial for agriculture, may be blocked by the dam, reducing soil fertility in the northeastern plains.

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China’s unilateral decision to build the Medog dam, without consulting downstream nations, raises geopolitical tensions in South Asia. The lack of a water-sharing treaty between China, India, and Bangladesh further exacerbates the situation. While China has provided hydrological data to India since 2006 and to Bangladesh since 2008, experts argue that such data-sharing agreements are insufficient in preventing potential water conflicts. India has expressed concerns about China’s control over transboundary rivers, with policymakers advocating for stronger diplomatic and strategic countermeasures.

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[Edit title for clarity.]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2007127

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Weidel admitted meeting Wu but said she met him once in months. As for their discussions, Weidel said that she sought an understanding of China’s position on Germany.

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The damning findings come days ahead of German parliamentary elections in which AfD has rattled mainstream politicians. As per latest opinion polls, the party stands second in popularity and way ahead of incumbent SPD. While AfD’s links to the neo-Nazi movement have led to widespread concerns and contributed to its ostracisation by German parties, the links to China have led to fresh concerns whether a top contender for German chancellorship has been groomed by China.

The findings are all the more damning as European far-right has long been supported by Russia and China is Russia’s principal ally. The AfD is so extremist that even French far-right party, National Rally (RN), broke ties with it in the European Union (EU) elections last year. Moreover, AfD has previously been charged with spying for China and such allegations contributed to the RN-AfD split.

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AfD leader Alice Weidel’s long relationship to China

In light of revealation of Weidel’s secret meetings with the top Chinese diplomat in Germany, fresh attention has come on her long relationship with China that goes back to decades. It is bound to be explored whether she has been groomed by China to do the Communist Party’s bidding in Germany and Europe.

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As an economist, Weidel worked for the state-owned Bank of China and lived in China for six years. It has been reported that she was on scholarship during those years. Her doctoral thesis was also written on Chinese pension system.

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In China, Weidel worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

While Weidel today leads a party linked to neo-Nazis, her grandparents were members of the Nazi Party. Her grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a prominent Nazi judge who persecuted political opponents of the Nazi regime. He was appointed by Adolf Hitler himself.

The United States on Thursday declined to co-sponsor a draft UN General Assembly resolution marking three years since the invasion of Ukraine, according to a source for Interfax-Ukraine.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/02/us-refuses-to-co-sponsor-draft-un-resolution-condemning-russia-aggression-in-ukraine/

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

The Hungarian government has asked the EU to refrain from any new initiatives that could undermine the Trump-led negotiations.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/02/21/as-eu-countries-try-to-close-ranks-on-trump-hungary-emerges-as-main-roadblock

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29873590

China came out in support of U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to strike a deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, at a G20 meeting in South Africa on Thursday, while U.S. allies rallied around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has upended U.S. policy on the war, scrapping a campaign to isolate Moscow with a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin and talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials that have sidelined Ukraine.

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Top-ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen is turning his controversial denim into some greens — for charity.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://apnews.com/article/magnus-carlsen-chess-jeans-dress-code-auction-5d97263f06cccabd4a961198039e77ea

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29872454

Planes flying between Australia and New Zealand have been diverted as China conducts a closely-scrutinised military exercise in nearby waters that may involve live fire.

The rare presence of three Chinese naval ships in the Tasman Sea has put both antipodean countries on alert in recent days, with Australia calling it "unusual".

Australian airline Qantas told the BBC it "temporarily adjusted" the routes of its planes and other carriers have reportedly done the same.

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Australia and New Zealand have been closely monitoring the Chinese fleet - a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker - since last week, and have dispatched their own ships to observe them.

Earlier this week, New Zealand's Defence Minister Judith Collins said China had not informed them they would be sending warships to their region and "have not deigned to advise us on what they are doing in the Tasman Sea", according to the New Zealand Herald.

Meanwhile, Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said that the ships' presence was "not unprecedented, but it is an unusual event".

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The drill comes just days after Australia and China held a defence dialogue in Beijing where they had discussed military transparency and communication, among other things.

The two countries have seen several recent tense maritime encounters.

Earlier this month, Canberra said a Chinese fighter jet had released flares in front of an Australian military aircraft while flying over the South China Sea. Beijing said the aircraft had "intentionally intruded" into its airspace.

In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea.

And in November 2023, Canberra accused Beijing's navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan, resulting in Australian divers suffering injuries.

Tokyo (AFP) – Japan's cabinet approved a bill Friday allowing hunters to shoot bears in populated areas at their own discretion after human encounters with the wild animals hit record levels.

Across the country, 219 people were attacked by bears in 12 months to April 2024, with six human fatalities -- the highest since statistics began nearly two decades ago.

Climate change affecting bear food sources and hibernation times, along with depopulation caused by an ageing society, are causing the animals to venture into towns more frequently.

The revised wildlife protection and management law allows "emergency shootings" following complaints that hunters were hampered by red tape.

The environment ministry hopes to present the bill to parliament in the coming months and get it enacted before autumn, when bear sightings typically surge, an environment ministry official told AFP, declining to be named.

Currently, shooting animals such as bears or wild boar in residential areas is forbidden.

Even when bears hole themselves up in populated areas, hunters are not allowed to shoot without being given the green light by police.

Even then, police "can only issue such a command in an extremely dire situation, such as when a person is seconds away from being attacked", the ministry official said.

Under current rules, "you'd have to wait until someone is actually in danger to get police approval", he said.

In December, a bear rampaged through a supermarket in northern Japan for two days before being lured out with food coated in honey.

It wounded a 47-year-old man before shoppers were evacuated and the bear laid waste to the meat department.

More than 9,000 bears were killed in Japan in the 12 months leading to April 2024.

Phnom Penh (AFP) – Cambodian deminers are to resume operations to clear unexploded munitions, after the United States granted a waiver to keep funding the work in the country, officials said on Friday.

Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), told AFP on Friday that the US had granted a conditional waiver for funding to partner organisations supporting Cambodia’s demining projects.

He said he had sent deminers, who had been standing down for the past several weeks, back to the field and that operations to clear unexploded munitions would resume on Monday.

"We are happy to resume our mission to save lives," Keo Sarath, manager of CMAC's demining unit 5 headquarters, which is responsible for clearing along eastern provinces bordering Vietnam.

The United States has been a "key partner" and provided around $10 million a year to fund mine clearance in Cambodia.

Ly Thuch, a senior government minister and leading official in Cambodia's Mine Action Authority, confirmed the US embassy had informed the foreign ministry about the continuation of demining funding.

He said deminers would soon be able to resume full-scale operations.

During the Vietnam War, then-US president Richard Nixon ordered a clandestine bombing campaign over large swathes of Laos and Cambodia, which helped fuel the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

After more than 30 years of civil war ended in 1998, Cambodia was left as one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Deaths from the war remnants are still common, with around 20,000 people killed since 1979, and twice that number wounded.

More than 1,600 square kilometres (620 square miles) of contaminated land still needs to be cleared in Cambodia.

Cambodia had aimed to be mine-free by 2025, but the government pushed the deadline back by five years because of funding challenges and new landmine fields found along the Thai border.

Tāplejung (Nepal) (AFP) – They appear tranquil soaring above Himalayan forests, but a string of cable car projects in Nepal have sparked violent protests, with locals saying environmental protection should trump tourism development.

In Nepal's eastern district of Taplejung, the community has been torn apart by a $22-million government-backed project many say will destroy livelihoods and damage ancient forests they hold as sacred.

Across Nepal, five cable car projects have opened in the past two years -- and 10 more are under development, according to government figures.

Critics accuse the government of failing to assess the environmental impact properly.

Around 300,000 Hindu devotees trek for hours to Taplejung's mountaintop Pathibhara temple every year -- a site also deeply sacred to the local Limbu people's separate beliefs.

In 2018, Chandra Prasad Dhakal, a businessman with powerful political ties who is also president of Nepal's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, announced the construction of a 2.5-kilometre-long (1.5-mile) cable car to the temple.

The government calls it a project of "national pride".

Dhakal's IME Group is also building other cable cars, including the 6.4-kilometre-long Sikles line in the Annapurna Conservation Area, which the Supreme Court upheld.

The government deemed the project a "national priority", thereby exempting it from strict planning restrictions in protected areas.

The Supreme Court scrapped that controversial exemption last month, a move celebrated by environmentalists.

But activists fear the project may still go ahead.

Taplejung is deeply sacred to local Mukkumlung beliefs, and residents say that the clearance of around 3,000 rhododendron trees -- with 10,00 more on the chopping block -- to build pylons is an attack on their religion.

"It is a brutal act," said protest chief Limbu. "How can this be a national pride project when the state is only serving business interests?"

Saroj Kangliba Yakthung, 26, said locals would rather efforts and funding were directed to "preserve the religious, cultural and ecological importance" of the forests.

The wider forests are home to endangered species including the red panda, black bear and snow leopard.

"We worship trees, stone and all living beings, but they are butchering our faith," said Anil Subba, director of the Kathmandu-based play "Mukkumlung", which was staged for a month as part of the protest.

The hundreds of porters and dozens of tea stall workers that support trekking pilgrims fear for their livelihoods.

"If they fly over us in a cable car, how will we survive?" said 38-year-old porter Chandra Tamang.

The government says the cable car will encourage more pilgrims by making it easy to visit, boosting the wider economy in a country where unemployment hovers around 10 percent, and GDP per capita at just $1,377, according to the World Bank.

"This will bring development," said resident Kamala Devi Thapa, 45, adding that the new route will aid "elderly pilgrims".

The cable cars symbolise Nepal's breakneck bid to cash in on tourism, making up more than six percent of the country's GDP in 2023, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

Beyond the Pathibhara project, the government's environmental policy is in question -- in a country where 45 percent is forest.

More than 255,000 trees have been cut down for infrastructure projects in the past four years, according to the environment ministry.

"Nepal has witnessed massive deforestation in the name of infrastructure," said Rajesh Rai, professor of forestry at Tribhuvan University. "This will have severe long-term consequences".

Unperturbed, the cable car builder assures his project will create 1,000 jobs and brushes aside criticism.

"It won't disturb the ecology or local culture," Dhakal said. "If people can fly there in helicopters, why not a cable car?"

The argument leaves Kendra Singh Limbu, 79, unmoved.

"We are fighting to save our heritage," he said.

It has split the community, local journalist Anand Gautam told AFP.

"It has turned fathers and sons against each other," Gautam said. "Some see it as progress, others as destruction".

A study in Nature reveals glaciers lost 273 billion metric tons of ice annually since 2000, impacting freshwater resources and sea-level rise.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.commondreams.org/news/glaciers-melting

Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08545-z

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2005369

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Thursday he saw no appetite from Russia for peace with Ukraine after listening to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov talk at a closed-door meeting of the top G20 diplomats in South Africa.

Lammy was speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies, which has been overshadowed by dispute between members over the Ukraine war, among other disagreements.

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Amnesty International on Thursday condemned the US government for systematically dismantling the right to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border, asserting that current policies violate both domestic and international human rights obligations.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/02/us-asylum-policies-at-mexico-border-spark-human-rights-concerns/

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29860356

Archived

China has revised its policy on the administration of Tibetan Buddhist temples, focusing especially on Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism with “a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation”, according to a Dharamshala-based Tibetan rights group.

China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a revised version of its “Measures for the Administration of Tibetan Buddhist Temples” on Dec 1, 2024 – after being adopted on Sep 1 – and it came into force at the beginning of last month, said the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Feb 14.

It said a major revision made in Article 4, which outlines the ideological framework within which the Communist Party of China (CPC) requires Tibetan monasteries to function, states:

“Temples and clergy should love the motherland, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by the Constitution, laws, regulations, rules, and relevant provisions on the management of religious affairs, practice core socialist values, forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, adhere to the direction of the Sinicization of religion, uphold the principle of independence and self-management, safeguard national unity, ethnic unity, religious harmony, and social stability, and promote the adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism to socialist society.”

The European Union has pledged to boost its “deterrence posture” when it comes to protecting the network of submarine communications cables linking the continent to the rest of the world and its outlying islands.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.thestack.technology/eu-strikes-stronger-deterrent-posture-as-baltic-cable-war-heats-up/

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2005305

This is an op-ed by Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, and a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

As Trump empowers Russia and the far right, he is laying the foundation for undermining democracies around the world.

Since the end of the second world war, liberal democracies have stuck together – led by the US. On the opposite side have been authoritarian states, led mainly by the Soviet Union, followed, after the demise of the Soviet Union, by Russia and China.

But all this is rapidly changing. Russia and China have morphed into oligarchies, run by small groups of extraordinarily wealthy people.

The US has been moving from a democracy to an oligarchy as well – and is doing so at lightning speed under Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2005766

**The EU is seeking improved screening of greenfield projects and a bigger say on which investments member states approve on national security grounds, as it expands its efforts to protect critical assets and know-how amid rising geopolitical tensions involving countries such as China. **

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“What comes out throughout [the reforms] is the Commission trying to give itself a … greater role in foreign investment screening,” says Christoph Barth, a partner in law firm Linklaters’s antitrust and foreign investment practice.

Among the proposed changes to the inbound screening regulation, which must be approved by European parliament and council to take effect, is obliging member states to give ‘utmost consideration’ to the Commission’s input when assessing a transaction’s national security risks and an explanation when their views diverge. “The question is whether the Commission now makes its opinions more directive in the sense of achieving a particular outcome for a particular case,” says Mr Barth, adding that this could “result in a potential clash between the Commission and member states”.

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“The push toward a FDI screening of greenfield investments is likely to build another hurdle for investments in the energy, battery or e-car sector … sectors where foreign competitors of EU companies have been gaining significant market share,” said Udo Herbert Olgemöller, partner at Allen & Overy. “Such screenings are time-consuming and create a certain level of legal uncertainty as their outcome may be affected by political considerations that are hardly predictable.”

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The Commission has also progressed plans to screen outbound investments into critical technologies in countries such as China, where it fears sensitive technologies and know-how could be used to undermine national security. It is seeking industry feedback via a three-month public consultation, which will be followed by a year of monitoring outbound deals and a final decision on an outbound mechanism by August 2025.

One of the early questions is whether the challenging task of obtaining the buy-in of each member state, which is necessary to introduce an outbound mechanism, can be achieved. On January 17, the European parliament passed a resolution calling for the expansion of legislative initiatives to tackle risks emanating from Chinese investment in the bloc. But neither industrial policies nor views on China are fully aligned across EU countries.

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Mexico's president is warning the United States against any violation of its territory.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20250220195343/https://www.npr.org/2025/02/20/nx-s1-5304248/mexico-warns-the-us-not-to-invade-our-sovereignty-in-fight-against-cartels

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2001269

Mette Frederiksen admitted that Denmark and other countries made a mistake by cutting their defence spending as she announced a 50bn Danish kroner (£5.5bn) package, saying: “It must never happen again.”

The Danish prime minister increased defence spending to 3% of GDP in the next two years – up from 2.4% in 2024 – as she said Denmark needed a “massive rearmament” to avoid war.

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“We have had to pay attention to a lot, both here in Denmark and in Greenland, and in general as Europeans,” Frederiksen said. “We are in the most dangerous situation in many, many years.”

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The Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said: “Within two years, Russia could pose a credible threat to one or several Nato countries if Nato does not build up its own military power in the same rate as Russia. This calls for swift political action.”

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Villa del Rosario (Colombia) (AFP) – Guerrilla fighters carried out four bomb attacks that wounded six people in a restive region of northeast Colombia, prompting officials to declare an overnight curfew Thursday and stoking concerns for a fragile peace process.

The police and military blamed the ELN group, with which the government called off peace talks last month, for the attacks in a cocaine-producing region near Colombia's border with Venezuela on Wednesday night.

A car bomb all but destroyed a toll booth outside the city of Villa del Rosario, while explosives were also detonated at police stations in the same city and in neighboring Cucuta, police commander General William Quintero told W Radio.

A source in the Norte de Santander departmental government, of which Cucuta is the capital, told AFP on Thursday that six people were injured.

Cucuta Mayor Jorge Acevedo announced an 11-hour curfew starting at 7:00 pm Thursday (midnight GMT), with schools shuttered on Friday.

Analysts say the security situation in Colombia has deteriorated under President Gustavo Petro's peace drive, which has seen an easing of the state's military offensive against armed groups, who are gaining strength.

Petro was elected in 2022 on promises of bringing "total peace" to a country battling to extricate itself from six decades of armed conflict between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels and the government.

Talks with remaining armed groups have broken down several times since a deal inked in 2016 led to the disarmament of the FARC, the biggest among the rebel armies.

The Norte de Santander department is a stronghold of the 5,800-strong National Liberation Army (ELN), which last month launched an offensive targeting rival fighters and civilians it alleged to be sympathizers in the Catatumbo region.

More than 60 people have been killed and some 50,000 driven from their homes, prompting Petro's government to suspend talks with the ELN.

The ELN has taken part in failed negotiations with Colombia's last five governments.

The country also faces a political crisis, with deeply unpopular Petro this month asking his entire cabinet to resign on the grounds they were ineffective.

One of those to quit was Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez, whom Petro replaced with Air Force General Pedro Sanchez.

On Monday, the president claimed "big mafias" were plotting to down his plane with missiles.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/18638241

Archived link

Representatives of the North Korean secret services are telling their soldiers in Russia's Kursk Oblast that they are fighting against South Korean troops as well as Ukrainians.

Source: Ri, a 26-year-old North Korean soldier who was captured by the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

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