China launches corruption probe against Defence Minister Dong Jun: Report
Investigation is part of a broader probe into military corruption that unseated Dong’s two predecessors. China has launched an investigation of Defence Minister Dong Jun due to suspicion of corruption, according to reports. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper The Financial Times said on Wednesday that Dong is the latest official to be caught up in a broad crackdown on corruption in the country’s military. For the meantime, the report is unconfirmed. Chinese officials failed to respond to requests for comment or confirmation from news agencies on Wednesday morning. China’s military has undergone a sweeping anticorruption purge since last year, with at least nine People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals and several defence industry executives removed from the national legislative body to date. Dong would be the third Chinese defence minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption, unnamed US officials told the FT. ‘The trust of the party’ Dong, a former PLA Navy chief, was appointed defence minister in December 2023. He is responsible for China’s military diplomacy with other nations. He oversaw a recent thaw in US-China military ties, with both nations holding theatre-level commander talks for the first time in September. Dong’s predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed after seven months into the job, and then expelled from the Communist Party, for offences that included bribery, according to state media. He has not been seen in public since. Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party and passed on to prosecutors for alleged corruption. A Communist Party statement at the time said the pair “betrayed the trust of the party and the Central Military Commission, seriously polluted the political environment of the military, and caused great damage to … the image of its senior leaders”. They were found to have received huge sums of money in bribes and to have “sought personnel benefits” for others, the statement said. According to experts, this is a blow to the party and the role. “It’s certainly a blow … because one would imagine they will be super careful to have someone very clean in this role,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told the AFP news agency. “Graft probes are very commonly targeted at the military because of the long historical ties between the business world and the PLA,” he said. At least two other high-ranking officers connected to the Rocket Force, a relatively new unit of the Chinese military, have also been removed for corruption. Victor Shih, an expert on China’s elite politics, told AFP that Dong “likely had authority over tens of billions in procurement per year” during his time in the navy. “The problem is that competition for top positions is so fierce that there might be some mutual recriminations between officers, which would lead to endless cycles of arrests, new appointments and recriminations,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Is Russia poisoning Namibia’s water in its hunt for uranium?
Windhoek and Leonardville, Namibia – Impo Gift Kapamba Musasa holds a hose pipe in one hand and gestures to a garden of cabbages, onions and turnips with the other. He is a teacher in the crumbling village of Leonardville in rural Namibia, where water is becoming scarce. The vegetables, grown for children at the primary school where he teaches, are watered from one of the largest aquifers on earth. The groundwater nourishes tens of thousands of people and is the lifeblood of the Kalahari Desert, which stretches across Namibia, as well as neighbouring Botswana and South Africa. Around Leonardville, 386km (240 miles) from the capital, Windhoek, scrubland meets ochre-coloured dunes known as the “red fingers of the Kalahari” for the way they reach out across the vast desert. Leonardville is a village of cattle farmers subsisting off meagre government handouts and homegrown vegetables, but it also sits on top of vast deposits of uranium – the fuel for nuclear reactors. That has brought the village of a few thousand people some unlikely attention in recent years. Impo Gift Kapamba Musasa grows vegetables for schoolchildren in Leonardville, Namibia [Tom Brown/Al Jazeera] On shop windows and village waypoints, posters appear, bearing the name and logo of a foreign company: Rosatom – Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, one of the world’s largest uranium companies. Rosatom has spent years attempting to set up a mine in eastern Namibia after the country lifted a temporary ban on uranium mining in 2017. The isolated African village has since seen an influx of investment from companies linked to the Russian government. A Rosatom subsidiary, known as Headspring Investments, in 2011 proposed to use a controversial drilling method to extract the uranium, known as “in situ” mining, which involves injecting a solution that includes sulphuric acid down into the aquifer. While Australian miners frequently use the drilling method, it has never been attempted in Africa, and is not usually done around aquifers, mining experts said. While the prospect of financial reward has some locals supporting a potential mine in the area, Rosatom’s proposal has also raised concerns among others in the country. Calle Schlettwein, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, told Namibia’s National Assembly on February 29 that Headspring’s activities could “endanger the groundwater” in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, “destroying the economic basis for the entire region”. Additionally, because of the need to cool down equipment during uranium mining, the process is also one of the most water-intensive operations. Namibia is becoming hotter and drier because of climate change, leaving residents more dependent on aquifers to grow their food as rainfall decreases. With the prospect of a uranium mine and its effects dangling over their heads, local farmers worry their livelihoods will disappear – for good. “Pollution is going to change people’s livelihoods,” says school teacher Impo, looking at his crops. Some local landowners have even started campaigning against the planned uranium mine, asking the government to consider the risks to their water supply. “Should uranium mining be allowed, it could render the water in the southeastern region of Namibia unfit for human and animal consumption, effectively bringing agriculture to a total and permanent standstill in the area,” said former Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) president, Piet Gouws, speaking to the Namibian Sun in 2022. Just as it seemed that Rosatom was on the cusp of achieving its goal of building the uranium mine, the Namibian government cancelled the drilling permits in November 2021, citing non-compliance with the licence terms. Many farmers hoped this was the last they would hear of Headspring. But Rosatom doubled down – on the ground in Leonardville and by trying to win supporters through softer means. The inauguration of the Rosatom-funded school kitchen in Leonardville, Namibia [Justicia Shipena/Al Jazeera] Trips, truck and influence operations Since 2021, Rosatom has been accused of running an influence campaign in Namibia, sponsoring trips for government officials and reporters to visit Russia, Al Jazeera has found. In April this year, Rosatom subsidiary Uranium One invited Namibian Minister of Health and Social Services Kalumbi Shangula to Sochi, Russia, to attend Atomexpo 2024, a nuclear industry event organised by Rosatom, where he spoke about rising cancer cases in his country. Uranium One had earlier donated a four-wheel drive to the Namibian Ministry of Health. Pijoo Nganate, the governor of the Omaheke region where Leonardville is located, has also visited Russia multiple times in trips he confirmed were at least partially funded by Rosatom. Nganate at first refused to answer whether Rosatom sponsored his trips to Russia. “Let them make those claims,” he said when informed via phone of accusations that the leadership in the region was aligning itself with the Russian-state entity, adding: “That’s immaterial, you lose the bigger picture.” He went on to tell Al Jazeera that it was Namibian ministries that had requested some donations in the form of food and medicine from Rosatom, not the other way around, and pointed out the severe unemployment and poverty in Omaheke. The Omaheke region has the smallest population in Namibia, but one of its highest poverty rates, at 51 percent of the population. Other government officials are listed on travel documents, seen by Al Jazeera, as attending multiple sponsored trips to Russia and Kazakhstan between 2022 and 2023. Namibian government officials appearing on these documents include Governor Nganate; Obeth Kandjoze, the director of the National Planning Commission; Hardap regional Governor Salomon April, who said he could not attend; and the chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources, Tjekero Tweya. Phone calls to Kandjoze and Tweya by Al Jazeera, seeking their response, went unanswered. Responding to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the accusations of the company trying to gain influence through donations and sponsored trips, Rosatom spokesperson Riaan van Rooyen said: “It is disheartening to see and hear that there are those cynical people that label Uranium One’s community upliftment efforts as ‘greenwashing’ and even ‘bribery’.” “Those privileged ones have had numerous opportunities and time
Celebrations and heavy traffic as Lebanon ceasefire begins
NewsFeed People in Lebanon celebrated and thousands of cars filled the roads to return home after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. Published On 27 Nov 202427 Nov 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia expels British diplomat for alleged spying
Moscow kicks out the diplomat, who, it says, was ‘conducting intelligence and subversive work that threatens the security of Russia’. Russia has ordered a British diplomat to leave the country for allegedly spying, in the latest blow to the already dire state of relations between the two countries. The FSB security service said on Tuesday that the diplomat, whose photo was splashed across TV news bulletins, had intentionally provided false information when he entered the country. “During counterintelligence work, the Russian Federal Security Service has discovered an undeclared British intelligence presence under the cover of the national embassy in Moscow,” it said. “At the same time, the Russian FSB has discovered signs of the said diplomat conducting intelligence and subversive work that threatens the security of the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement. It named him as Edward Wilkes and said he was a second secretary, a relatively junior diplomatic rank. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was unaware of the reported diplomatic expulsion, the Reuters news agency reported. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that a decision was made to revoke the diplomat’s accreditation and he has been ordered to leave the country within two weeks. She said that the ministry had summoned the British ambassador to hand over the notice. The envoy, Nigel Casey, was shown by Russian state media arriving at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow. According to the FSB, the British diplomat was a replacement for one of six British diplomats expelled earlier this year, also on espionage charges. Tense relations Reacting to the earlier expulsions in September, the United Kingdom rejected the spying allegations against its diplomats as “malicious and completely baseless” and said Russia’s behaviour was completely unacceptable. Relations between the UK and Russia have plunged to post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukraine war. The UK has joined successive waves of sanctions against Russia and provided arms to Ukraine. Russia said Ukraine fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles at its territory last week for the first time. President Vladimir Putin cited the use of the British-made missiles, and the launching of US ATACMS ballistic missiles by Ukraine, as the reason Russia responded by launching a new hypersonic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week. Relations between London and Moscow have been repeatedly strained by alleged spy scandals, including the 2006 assassination of former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in a London poisoning attack. Then in 2018, the UK and its allies expelled dozens of Russian embassy officials they accused of being spies over the attempted poisoning of former double agent, Sergei Skripal, who was living in exile in the UK. Skripal survived the attempted Novichok attack but a British civilian died after touching a contaminated perfume bottle, triggering uproar in London. Adblock test (Why?)
Walt Disney agrees to pay $43.3m to settle pay discrimination suit
The suit was filed in 2019 after the plaintiff learned that six men with same job title earned substantially more. Walt Disney has agreed to pay $43.3m to settle a lawsuit alleging that its female employees in California earned $150m less than their male counterparts over an eight-year period, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have said. As part of the settlement, Disney has agreed to retain a labour economist for three years to analyse pay equity among full-time, non-union California employees below the vice president level, and address differences, the three law firms representing the plaintiffs said in a statement on Monday. The suit was originally filed by LaRonda Rasmussen in 2019, after she learned that six men with the same job title earned substantially more than her, including one man with several years less experience, who was earning $20,000 a year more than she did. Some 9,000 current and former female employees of the entertainment company eventually joined the suit. Disney attempted to stop the class action, but a judge ruled last December that it could proceed, Andrus Anderson, one of the law firms, said at the time. “I strongly commend Ms Rasmussen and the women who brought this discrimination suit against Disney, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. They risked their careers to raise pay disparity at Disney,” Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson, said in Monday’s statement. “We have always been committed to paying our employees fairly and have demonstrated that commitment throughout this case, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter,” a Disney spokesperson told Reuters. The case was also supported by an analysis of Disney’s human resource data from April 2015 until December 2022 that found female Disney employees were paid roughly 2 percent less than their male counterparts. The analysis was conducted by David Neumark, a University of California Irvine professor and labour economist. The settlement agreement, which was filed in a California state court, still requires approval by a judge, according to the lawyers. Adblock test (Why?)
Syrian Civil Defence creates early warning system for schools in Idlib
[unable to retrieve full-text content] The Syrian Civil Defence team created an early warning system to detect warplanes for schools in Idlib.
Netanyahu says he will present Lebanon ceasefire deal to cabinet
NewsFeed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will present a ceasefire deal to his cabinet that would stop the fighting in Lebanon but how long it will last depends on Hezbollah. Published On 26 Nov 202426 Nov 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Canada, Mexico leaders stress cooperation after Trump tariffs threat
The leaders of Mexico and Canada are urging dialogue and cooperation after United States President-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose 25-percent tariffs on the two countries when he takes office early next year. During a news conference on Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she planned to send a letter to Trump stressing the need to work together on joint challenges. “To one tariff will come another and so on until we put our common businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said, warning that tariffs would cause inflation and job losses in both countries. In a post on social media on Monday evening, Trump said he planned to “charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States”. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem.” He also said he planned to impose “an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs” on Beijing, which Washington views as its largest global competitor. Trump, who won the November 5 presidential election over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, had repeatedly said during his 2024 campaign that he would impose increased tariffs on all imports into the US. The former president and his allies have portrayed the tariffs policy as a key tool to bring back jobs and manufacturing from overseas. Experts have said, however, that the move would increase costs for Americans. On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he spoke with Trump on Monday evening after the Republican’s online posts. Trudeau said he stressed the longstanding ties between the two countries. “We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together. It was a good call,” he said, adding: “This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do.” The Liberal Party leader, whose popularity has dropped significantly over the past few years amid high costs of living and a housing crisis, is under pressure from Conservative politicians at the federal and provincial levels to resolve any problems before Trump takes office. “The federal government needs to take the situation at our border seriously,” right-wing Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post on Monday night. Danielle Smith, the right-wing premier of Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta, also said Trump had “valid concerns” about the US-Canada land border, which stretches 6,416km (3,987 miles). A 25 per cent tariff would be devastating to workers and jobs in both Canada and the U.S. The federal government needs to take the situation at our border seriously. We need a Team Canada approach and response—and we need it now. Prime Minister Trudeau must call an urgent… — Doug Ford (@fordnation) November 26, 2024 “As the largest exporter of oil and gas to the US, we look forward to working with the new administration to strengthen energy security for both the US and Canada,” she wrote on X. Trudeau said on Tuesday that he had spoken with Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault and planned to convene a meeting with provincial leaders to discuss the US. “There’s work to do, but we know how to do it,” the prime minister added. ‘Negotiating tactic’? Asa McKercher, the Hudson research chair in Canada-US relations at St Francis Xavier University in Canada, noted that Trump often threatened to enact harsh policies during his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021 but didn’t always follow through. “My initial thought is that this is probably some sort of negotiating tactic rather than something he actually wants to go through with — in part because it would be hugely damaging to the American economy,” McKercher told Al Jazeera of Trump’s tariffs threat. He explained that the tariffs would drive up prices on many things, including oil and gas supplies from Canada as well as food imports from Mexico. The US and Canada are each other’s largest trading partners, exchanging nearly $2.7bn ($3.6bn Canadian) in goods and services across their shared border daily in 2023, according to Canadian government figures. Meanwhile, US goods and services traded with Mexico totalled an estimated $855bn in 2022, the Office of the US Trade Representative said. Sheinbaum has warned that tariffs could put US and Mexican ‘businesses at risk’ [File: Raquel Cunha/Reuters] The three countries are signatories to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which they signed in 2020 when Trump was president to replace the longstanding North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “He’s being a bully, which is what he is, and he’s making these kind of threats to see what kind of goodies he can get,” McKercher said of Trump, adding that the Republican’s remarks about fentanyl and irregular migration appear more geared towards Mexico than Canada. “That’s not really an issue in Canada-US relations,” he said. The Mexican peso weakened almost 2 percent in early trading on Tuesday after the US president-elect’s comments. During her news conference, Sheinbaum said her administration had always shown Mexico’s willingness to help fight the fentanyl epidemic in the US and that apprehensions of migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border were down. However, Sheinbaum noted that criminal groups in Mexico were still receiving guns from the US. She said the region’s shared challenges require cooperation, dialogue and reciprocal understanding. “We do not produce weapons. We do not consume the synthetic drugs,” she said. “Unfortunately, we have the people who are being killed by crime that is responding to the demand in your country.” Adblock test (Why?)
Pakistan’s Champions Trophy fate to be decided by ICC on November 29
The ICC will decide next steps for the Pakistan-hosted tournament after India refused to travel to the country. The International Cricket Council (ICC) will meet this week to determine the destiny of next year’s Champions Trophy after India refused to play in host nation Pakistan, a spokesperson said. Earlier this month, the ICC informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that India would not tour Pakistan for the eight-team tournament, leaving the fate of the showcase event hanging in the balance. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since being carved out of the subcontinent’s partition in 1947 and that rivalry is often reflected on the cricket field. A spokesperson for the ICC based in Dubai told the AFP news agency on Tuesday they could “confirm an ICC meeting on Friday” where the issue will be on the agenda, without providing further details. The PCB has already rejected proposals that would allow India to play in a neutral third country, insisting the full schedule from February 19 to March 9 must be staged in Pakistan. India’s cricket board has not commented on the tournament. India has not visited Pakistan since 2008, and deteriorating political ties mean the great rivals only play each other at multiteam ICC events. Pakistan travelled to India for the ICC Cricket World Cup in October and November 2023 and played all its matches in the host nation. Pakistan suffered a multiyear drought of matches at home as teams refused to visit after a 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore. International play only fully resumed in 2020. When Pakistan hosted last year’s Asia Cup, India’s matches were played outside the country. Pakistani cricket chiefs have rejected security fears for the Champions Trophy, pointing to their recent successful hosting of top teams including Australia, England and South Africa. The Champions Trophy will be the first ICC event staged in Pakistan since it co-hosted the 1996 World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan are the defending ICC Champions Trophy holders from when it was last staged in 2017. Pakistan won the last staging of the ICC Champions Trophy back in 2017 at The Oval, London, UK [John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images] Adblock test (Why?)
Four bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat in Red Sea: Egypt official
Authorities says five more people have been rescued, bringing the total to 33 survivors while seven remain missing. Four bodies have been recovered as rescue teams continue to search for survivors after a tourist boat capsized in the Red Sea off Egypt’s eastern coast. Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi said on Tuesday that rescue teams have found five people alive, including one Egyptian two Belgian nationals, one Swiss national, and one Finn, bringing the total number of survivors to 33. The four people who died have yet to be identified, and seven people remain missing. “Rescue operations are ongoing today, supported by a military helicopter and a frigate in addition to multiple divers,” Hanafi told the AFP news agency. The incident occurred on Monday after the Sea Story boat capsized, carrying 31 tourists and 13 crew on a multiday diving trip, after it was hit by high waves, leading it to sink near Marsa Alam in southeastern Egypt. Hanafi said that the boat capsized within five to seven minutes after hitting a wave, leaving some passengers unable to escape from their cabins in time. A photo shared online by the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt shows the Sea Story luxury yacht, which authorities reported capsized early on the morning of November 25 [Red Sea Governorate/Facebook] On Monday, 28 people were rescued with minor injuries and were transported to a hotel in Marsa Alam as authorities coordinated with embassies to provide assistance and documentation. The governor’s office has said that the boat was carrying tourists from Belgium, the United Kingdom, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. Moreover, Hanafi said the boat had cleared its last safety inspection in March, and no technical issues were reported. However, the Sea Story is one of many boats that have sunk in this area of Egypt due to rough weather conditions. In June, a vessel suffered severe damage from strong winds, but there were no casualties. Earlier in November, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the Red Sea’s Daedalus reef. Adblock test (Why?)