Mozambique’s president says northern town ‘under attack’ by armed groups
President Filipe Nyusi said the country’s army is battling ISIL-linked groups in gas-rich Cabo Delgado’s Macomia. Mozambique’s army is fighting armed groups who launched a major attack on the northern town of Macomia, President Filipe Nyusi has said in a televised address. The town is in Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich northern province where groups linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group, launched an armed uprising in 2017. Despite a large security response, there has been a surge in attacks since January this year. Two security sources told the Reuters news agency that hundreds of fighters are believed to be involved in the latest attack that took place on Friday morning. “Macomia is under attack since this morning. Fire exchange still continues,” Nyusi said at about 10:00 GMT, adding that the armed group fighters initially withdrew after about 45 minutes of fighting, but then regrouped and came back. Friday’s attack appeared to be the most serious attack in the area in some time. A regional force from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which deployed in Mozambique in 2021, started withdrawing last month as its mandate ends in July. Piers Pigou, head of the Southern Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, said the attack on the Macomia district headquarters validates concerns over a security vacuum opening up with the drawdown of the Southern African troops. “Claims that the province has been for the most part stabilised are evidently not accurate,” he told Reuters. Nyusi said that attacks can take place in such periods of transition and that he hoped the SADC forces would be able to step in and help. It was unclear if they were still deployed in the area or involved in the fight. Rwanda has also deployed troops to Mozambique to help fight the armed groups. Figures released by the International Organisation for Migration in March show more than 110,000 people have been displaced since the end of last year, amid escalating violence in the province. The offensive comes as French oil company TotalEnergies is seeking to restart a $20bn liquefied natural gas terminal in Cabo Delgado that was halted in 2021 due to the violence. That project is some 200km (124 miles) north of Macomia, the town under attack. ExxonMobil, with partner Eni, is also developing an LNG project in northern Mozambique and said last week that it was “optimistic and pushing forward” as the security situation had improved. Adblock test (Why?)
Chad’s President Deby wins election against prime minister in heated race
Violence and questions of election-rigging, however, marred the provisional vote tally, which was announced earlier than expected. Military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby has won a closely watched presidential election in the country of Chad, according to provisional results released by its National Election Management Agency. Deby secured more than 61 percent of the vote, according to the numbers released on Thursday, eliminating the need for a runoff with his closest rival, Prime Minister Succes Masra, who received 18.5 percent. The victory allows Deby, the incumbent, to hold onto the presidency with a voter mandate. Previously, he led the country as its interim president, seizing power after his father, the late President Idriss Deby, was killed in April 2021 while fighting a rebel group in the north of the country. But his rival in the presidential race, Masra, has already indicated he will not accept the election results. Earlier on Thursday, Masra issued a live broadcast on Facebook declaring himself the winner. He also accused Deby and other government officials of rigging the election results to hold onto power. “A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” Masra said. President Mahamat Idriss Deby casts his vote during the May 6 presidential election [Stringer/Reuters] Deby’s father had led the country for more than 30 years, from 1990 to 2021, when he was shot to death shortly after his sixth presidential victory. Critics have accused both him and now his son, the current President Deby, of stifling the opposition to maintain their grip on power. They have also pointed to circumstances leading up to the May 6 presidential vote that could have swayed its outcome. For instance, one of the leading opposition figures, Deby’s cousin Yaya Dillo, was killed when security forces engaged in a shootout at his party headquarters. Other opposition figures have been barred from running over “irregularities” in their applications to campaign. On Thursday, Masra called on his supporters and security forces to back his claim to the presidency and reject the election agency’s results. “To all Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilise. Do it calmly, with a spirit of peace,” he said in his Facebook broadcast. A poll worker shows off a copy of the presidential ballot on May 6, showing all 10 candidates [Desire Danga Essigue/Reuters] Thursday’s results came earlier than expected, as the provisional results were originally thought to arrive on May 21. Chad is considered the first of the military-led countries in Africa’s Sahel region to hold a democratic election, though questions about the vote’s fairness and credibility have endured. Nearby countries like Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have weathered coups that have left military leaders in charge of their governments, too. Eight coups have struck the region since 2020 alone. This month’s presidential race was also the first time in the country’s history that an incumbent faced his prime minister in the polls. Upon taking office in 2021, Deby pledged to hold “free and democratic elections” within 18 months – but his government extended the transition period until 2024, allowing Deby to remain in office in the interim. During that time, he led a referendum on a new constitution that allowed him to mount his 2024 election bid. A lifelong soldier, Deby led the powerful DGSSIE, an acronym for the General Direction of the Security Services of State Institutions. In that role, he worked closely with French troops. Home to nearly 18 million people, Chad was under French colonial rule until 1960, and it remains the last country in the Sahel region to have a French military presence, with warplanes and troops stationed there. In the wake of Thursday’s announcement, security forces were stationed at intersections throughout the capital of N’Djamena, in case of unrest. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 806
As the war enters its 806th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Friday, May 10, 2024. Fighting Two people were killed in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Nikopol, while Ukraine’s air force said air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 Russian attack drones targeting the southern Odesa region. No casualties were reported from those attacks. Eight people were injured and dozens of buildings damaged in a Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s army was facing “a really difficult situation” against Russian forces on the eastern front, but that the US’s $61bn military aid package was coming and would turn the tide. Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrhydroenergo said two hydropower plants were no longer operating after Russian attacks earlier this week caused “devastating damage”. Unnamed intelligence sources in Kyiv told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that a Ukrainian drone struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region on Thursday from some 1,500km (932 miles) away in the longest-range attack since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Russia’s emergency services said a building at Gazprom’s Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex in Bashkortostan was damaged, the RIA state news agency reported. Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian President Zelenskyy fired the head of the state guards, the unit that provides protection to top officials, after the intelligence services said two of its members were involved in a Russian plot to assassinate him. Zelenskyy appointed Brigadier General Oleksandr Trepak as the commander of Ukraine’s special forces replacing Colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk. It is the second time in six months that the president has changed the head of the unit that operates in Russia-occupied territories. No reason was given. Ukraine’s popular former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, was named Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. The previous ambassador was fired in July 2023 after criticising the president. Ukraine’s parliament backed a bill to crack down on voted-on draft dodgers. The legislation includes raising fines for anyone caught trying to avoid the call-up and allowing authorities to detain draft dodgers for up to three days. Speaking at Russia’s Victory Day military parade, President Vladimir Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, and of stoking conflicts across the world. Putin ordered Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow currently occupies about 18 percent of the country. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Seoul would maintain strong ties with Ukraine and a “smooth” relationship with Russia but ruled out direct weapon shipments to Kyiv. Weapons German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukraine’s Western allies would deliver three more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). The system can launch multiple guided missiles in quick succession. Adblock test (Why?)
Two mango seasons: A long wait for Pakistan families hit by May 9 violence
Islamabad, Pakistan – It’s summertime, and mango season in Pakistan. But 25-year-old Amber* can’t stand the sight of the fruit, one of the country’s most famous exports. Mangoes remind her of her jailed husband, Mohammad Zameer*. “My husband loves mangoes,” says the mother of three children from her home in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-largest city in the province of Punjab. On May 9, 2023, Zameer was on his way home after lunch with his brother late in the afternoon when he became one among thousands of people who were caught up in a maelstrom of protests that exploded on Pakistan’s streets after former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest. Khan’s supporters attacked government buildings and even military installations, after the former prime minister accused the country’s army of orchestrating his removal from power a year earlier. The military cracked down on protesters, who were accused of what Pakistan’s government later described as an “attempted coup.” But rights groups say that many of the more than 9,000 people arrested across the country in the wake of the May 9 riots were not political activists, and some were bystanders picked up because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zameer, 33, was among those arrested in Faisalabad. His family was confident he would be released soon. So Amber bought her husband’s favourite fruit to greet him with a mango shake when he returned home. A year later, Amber — who was pregnant at the time — is effectively a single parent to their five-year-old son, three-year-old daughter and their youngest daughter, who was born after her husband’s arrest. And she’s still waiting to make a mango shake for Zameer. “That summer ended, then the winters came and went, and now a new mango season is here, but my husband is yet to return home,” she says. ‘Dark chapter’ On May 9, nationwide protests erupted after Khan, the cricketer-turned-founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was arrested during a court appearance in capital Islamabad over corruption charges. His supporters stormed the house of a military commander in Lahore, partially burning it. That night, a mob tried to enter the heavily secured military headquarters in Rawalpindi town. Faced with a scenario that Pakistan’s security establishment had never faced its history, law enforcement officials fired on attackers. At least 10 people were killed in the protests. And a country already reeling under a severe economic crisis found itself grappling with deepening political instability. The PTI supporters’ anger stemmed from Khan’s allegation that the “establishment” – a euphemism for the army – was behind his sacking in April 2022 when he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament and had to cede power to a coalition headed by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Pakistan’s powerful military, which has directly ruled over the country for three decades and has enjoyed significant influence even under civilian governments, has consistently denied Khan’s allegations. The military called the May 9 protests a “dark chapter” in Pakistan’s history and pledged to take strict action against the protesters. Meanwhile, Khan — who was released on bail on May 12 — was eventually arrested in August, and has since been convicted in a spate of cases linked to corruption, state secrets and even the religious validity of his marriage. Those convictions in turn led to his disqualification from electoral politics. Khan could not contest in the national elections held in February this year, and remains in custody. The former prime minister has denied the charges against him, and has said they are politically motivated. In the aftermath of the May 9 riots, 105 out of those who were arrested were charged under a section of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), which the government amended to broaden its scope. The amended law punishes anyone who “approaches, inspects, passes over or is in the vicinity of, or enters, attacks, destroys or otherwise undermines any prohibited place”. These cases were heard in military courts, where the accused do not have the right to appeal verdicts in civilian courts. Access to lawyers in such cases is often at the discretion of the military, which otherwise provides a “friend of the accused” — a military official from the army’s legal department tasked to assist an accused person. All 105 of them were convicted. In April, under instructions by Supreme Court of Pakistan, 20 of them were pardoned since their convictions were of less than a year. The remaining 85 convictions — including Zameer’s — are currently on hold, due to a restraining order from the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing a case regarding the constitutionality of the military courts. But these 85 are still behind bars. ‘It’s my birthday next month’ It all began on the afternoon of May 9, Amber says. Zameer was almost home when he saw a large gathering of people outside a building near their house, which he realised was the local office of the Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan’s military intelligence agency). They were Khan’s supporters, protesting his arrest. Amber says Zameer took a video of the protest on his phone, then came back home. Later that day, Zameer, a real estate dealer who also owns a mobile phone shop, shared the video he had shot with some of his friends on WhatsApp. A week later, Zameer was at his shop when four officials, two of them in police uniform, arrested him. His family was still grieving the loss of Zameer’s father in March 2023. Now they had a new shock to deal with. “Zameer used to do a lot of social work and people in the area knew him,” Amber says. “He had never thought he could be arrested.” She said the officers were courteous during the arrest and the family believed Zameer would likely be released soon. Zameer was kept in a Faisalabad jail where his brothers would visit him, while Amber stayed at home. “He [Zameer] would send messages for me, asking me to stay strong and look after myself
Boeing 737: Plane skids off runway in Senegal, tyre bursts in Turkey
Accidents involving Air Senegal, Corendon Airlines come as aircraft manufacturer in crisis over its poor safety record. Two Boeing 737 passenger planes have been involved in accidents in Senegal and Turkey on takeoff and landing, raising further questions about the aircraft manufacturer’s safety record. In Senegal, a chartered Air Senegal Boeing B737-300 plane skidded off a runway before takeoff early on Thursday at Blaise Diagne International Airport in the capital, Dakar. Eight-five people – including two pilots and four cabin crew – were on board the flight operated by TransAir and bound for the Malian capital Bamako. At least 10 people were injured, the transport ministry said. Photos showed the damaged plane at a standstill in a grassy field with a damaged wing, its emergency exit slides deployed. Videos shared on social media appeared to show a left wing on fire. The aircraft was later cordoned off with red and white tape, the Reuters news agency reported. The facility was closed after the accident but had reopened by 11:00 GMT, the airport operator said. In Turkey, 190 people – including six crew members – were safely evacuated from a Boeing 737-800 belonging to Corendon Airlines after one of the aircraft’s tyres burst on Thursday during landing at Gazipasa, an airport near the Mediterranean coastal town of Alanya. Corendon Airlines denied Turkish media reports that the aircraft, which had arrived from Cologne, Germany, had landed on its nose. Turkey’s Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure reported damage to the plane’s nose landing gear. Flights were diverted to nearby Antalya airport while the aircraft was removed, the ministry said. It was the second incident at a Turkish airport in as many days. On Wednesday, a Boeing 767 cargo aircraft belonging to FedEx made an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport after its front landing gear failed. No one was injured and the crew safely evacuated the aircraft. Manufacturers are not typically involved in the operation or maintenance of jets once they enter service, but Boeing has been under intense media and regulatory scrutiny following a series of incidents involving its 737s. In January, a door panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight. The midair blowout followed two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Further denting the company’s image, air safety officials in the United States are currently investigating whether employees at Boeing falsified inspection records for the 787 Dreamliner. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli activists block Gaza-bound aid trucks on desert highway
NewsFeed Drone footage captured a long line of aid trucks bound for Gaza stuck on a narrow mountain pass after being blocked by Israeli activists. The demonstrators covered the roadway with large stones to prevent their passage through Mitzpe Ramon. Published On 9 May 20249 May 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
‘It’s not human’: What a French doctor saw in Gaza as Israel invaded Rafah
Dr Zouhair Lahna has worked in conflict zones across the globe – Syria, Libya, Yemen, Uganda and Ethiopia – but he has never seen anything like the Israeli war on Gaza. In those life-threatening situations, the Moroccan French pelvic surgeon and obstetrician said, there was a route to safety for civilians. But on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized and closed Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt – the only escape for Palestinians from the war and the most important entry point for humanitarian aid. “This is another injustice. … It’s not human,” Lahna said, shaking his head as he spoke to Al Jazeera from Cairo, Egypt, where he has been evacuated from the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis. He laments having to leave his Palestinian colleagues behind. “I am angry, troubled, upset … because I left some people. They are my friends. I was with them, these doctors, these people. …We eat together, we work together and now I left them in trouble. They have to move their families, look for a tent, look for water, for food,” he said. Lahna has spent months volunteering in Gaza’s hospitals as part of missions organised by the Palestinian Doctors Association in Europe (PalMed Europe) and US-based Rahma International. Dr Lahna, centre, with his colleagues at PalMed Europe and Rahma International in Gaza [Courtesy of Zouhair Lahna] On the morning that displaced Palestinians in eastern Rafah were ordered to evacuate and before Israeli tanks rolled in, Lahna and his foreign colleagues received text messages from the Israeli army. “The Israeli army, they know everything. They know everyone who is in Gaza and how to reach them. They told us to leave.” The texts urged the foreign doctors to leave Gaza because the Israeli military would soon begin an operation in eastern Rafah. A few hours later, Lahna and his counterparts from PalMed Europe and Rahma International were picked up by their organisations and taken to safety in Cairo. “There were four doctors in the European Hospital, four in the Kuwaiti Hospital and two others,” he said. “We waited while they gave our names to the Egyptian and Israeli authorities, and finally, we got word to leave.” As they were departing, leaflets from the Israeli military printed with the evacuation order fell from the sky along with missiles from Israeli warplanes. People were in a panic as they headed north from Rafah towards Khan Younis or west towards the sea, Lahna recalled. Collapse of a system When asked about the conditions of the hospitals he worked in, Lahna has trouble describing what he saw. He begins to speak, then pauses, apologising, pained by the number of sick, wounded and dying individuals who were brought in daily. “It’s difficult for me to remember this,” he said slowly. While the European Hospital has been spared from an Israeli raid, it has been receiving referrals from other overwhelmed hospitals. It has also been a place of shelter for displaced people who try to find space wherever they can, including at the doors of patient rooms, in the building’s corridors, on the stairs and in the hospital’s garden. Lahna’s visit to al-Shifa Hospital, which he says was ‘barbarically destroyed’ [Courtesy of Zouhair Lahna] Before the European Hospital, Lahna and his team volunteered at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza’s northern city of Beit Lahiya. He is among the few foreign doctors to have travelled to the area. They worked there for a week, the longest Israeli authorities permitted them to be there, he said. There, the situation was even more dire, the doctor said, exacerbated by what the World Food Programme says is a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza. In December, the hospital was the site of an Israeli raid when the military besieged and shelled it for several days. Displaced families had also been sheltering there and were rounded up alongside medical staff and personnel. Gaza’s hospitals, the majority of which are no longer functioning, have also been the site of mass graves discovered after Israeli raids. Graves have been found in recent weeks in Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals along with 392 bodies. Working for peace, not war With the collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza, Lahna is determined to return and volunteer there once again but isn’t sure when that will be possible. For now, he said, he will return to France to check in at his “other job” and spend time with his family, who may have had a harder time than he did because all they did was worry about him while he was in Gaza. He is sure all of Rafah will soon be occupied by Israeli forces, which will be deadly for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians there, he said. “This world is blind,” Lahna said, dismayed that the Rafah incursion is likely to continue to occur despite warnings from the international community, which has not been able to stop Israel from committing mass atrocities, he said. “Human rights is a joke. The United Nations is a big joke,” Lahna added. He believes the war is as much a United States conflict as it is Israeli with the US approving an additional $17bn in aid to its top Middle East ally last month. For Lahna, the protesting university students around the world, particularly in the US, who oppose Israel’s ongoing assault know the value of human rights. Yet when it comes to Palestinians, he said, they are coming to realise that these values do not apply – and are increasingly becoming disillusioned with their elected officials and the state of the world. That disillusionment is wearing on the doctor himself, but he said it has also strengthened his resolve to offer his expertise to people in warzones around the world, including Gaza. Asked if he is worried about being arrested. tortured or killed for his work in the enclave, the surgeon barely bats an eye. He said his time to die will come one day or another and if it
Will Israel face consequences over its seizure of the Rafah Crossing?
Israeli army kills more Palestians in Gaza after takeover of crossing on vital route for aid deliveries. Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing worsens an already dire situation for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Why has Israel defied the US and taken over the crossing? And what could the consequences be for all sides? Presenter: Tom McRae Guests: Salman Sheikh – Founder of peacebuilding organisation The Sheikh Group Nour Odeh – Political analyst and public diplomacy specialist H A Hellyer – Senior associate fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute in London Adblock test (Why?)
How food and chopstick skills are helping ease US-China tensions
Shanghai, China – “The Chinese take great pride in their food,” read a memo prepared for United States President Richard Nixon ahead of his groundbreaking visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1972. Nixon’s lavish state banquet with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing, broadcast live across the world, was crucial in improving US public opinion of a country that had been hidden from view for decades. More than half a century later, food is once again playing a central role in nurturing warmer US-China relations. With Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both recently wrapping up their second visits to China in less than a year, meals have emerged as a key ingredient in stabilising ties between the two countries, as officials on both sides look to tap into the potential of what has been called “food diplomacy”. Yellen’s visit in early April was notable for the level of Chinese public attention on her food choices. Anticipation was high after her first visit last July, when her choice of a Beijing restaurant serving authentic food from the country’s southern Yunnan province, including mushrooms that can have psychedelic effects if cooked improperly, made her a social media darling in China. This time around, it was not only her choice of authentic Cantonese and Sichuan food that grabbed headlines but also her use of chopsticks at a popular Guangzhou restaurant established in 1880, reminiscent of Nixon’s own chopstick skills that also impressed his hosts in 1972. Although Yellen is known to sample local food during her trips around the US, the symbolic significance of doing so in China was especially pronounced, according to Thomas DuBois, a historian of China who teaches at Beijing Normal University. “In China, food is the language of diplomacy, and the Chinese are rightfully proud of their culinary culture. She [Yellen] knew that how she ate would reflect extremely heavily on her visit,” DuBois told Al Jazeera. “If you’re eating badly in China, because it’s a very food-obsessed culture, it’s more than a sign of bad taste, it’s a sign that there’s something off about you.” US President Richard Nixon’s 1972 banquet in Beijing was broadcast live on television [Bill Achatz/AP Photo] DuBois noted that one of the common phrases used to describe Yellen’s eating in China was “qianxu”, or humility – a character trait “extremely important” to the Chinese. “Eating well and knowing how to eat is a profound moral philosophy in China that really comes down to being humble enough to change yourself according to what needs to happen, such as coming here and using chopsticks,” he said. Food’s importance to diplomacy is well-known among foreign diplomats in China. According to a diplomat for a major European country in Beijing, eating together is one of the top priorities when interacting with Chinese officials. “In high-level bilateral meetings, it’s incredibly important to have an eating element in the programme because that’s where you can have an open and frank conversation,” he said, preferring not to be named. “The dinners are used strategically on both sides to create a trusted relationship,” he said. Before the diplomat was posted to Beijing, part of his training related to Chinese banquet customs, including who sits where at the table and the rules surrounding toasting. Ministers from his country are also briefed on these customs before they have meetings with their Chinese counterparts, he added. Even so, banquets can be tricky affairs. In addition to complicated customs, the complex nature of Chinese cuisine, which uses a wide range of ingredients, can lead to challenges in establishing rapport over food, especially with food allergies, which are relatively uncommon in China. At a recent banquet in Beijing arranged by the Chinese, each visiting European minister had a different allergy, from lactose intolerance to shellfish. “A Chinese staffer came over and told me that they had such difficulty planning this dinner for us because our ministers have so many different allergies,” the diplomat said. “These differences in eating habits can complexify things and create lots of stress and anxiety.” Warm coverage The viral seven-second video of Yellen’s chopstick skills was first posted by a social media account believed to be run directly by Beijing. Multiple state-run outlets published the full details of Yellen’s food itinerary, including all the dishes she ate. In an essay on the popular Chinese app WeChat, veteran commentator and former journalist Zhang Feng noted that Chinese state media coverage of Yellen’s more endearing side was a departure from the “cold” reporting on US officials in recent years. “Yellen’s trip to China may somewhat improve the anti-American sentiment of ordinary Chinese people,” Zhang wrote. Chinese public opinion of the US sharply deteriorated during the Donald Trump presidency, who famously ate “Americanised” Chinese food during his state visit in 2017, rebounding slightly since President Joe Biden took office. The warmer coverage is consistent with the Chinese state media’s shift in tone on US-China relations in recent months as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) looks to stabilise bilateral relations amid domestic economic challenges. The practice has historical roots. Chinese officials also used food to improve perceptions of the US in the run-up to Nixon’s visit in 1972. Photos of Americans friendly to the regime, such as journalist Edgar Snow, attending various state banquets were widely circulated in both national and internal party newspapers. The Nanxiang Steamed Bun restaurant said it had seen no spike in business as a result of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken eating there [Vincent Chow/Al Jazeera] However, there has also been nationalist pushback against the recent softening of rhetoric. The outspoken tabloid Global Times said in an editorial that “[t]he Chinese people welcome anyone from anywhere to come and enjoy our food, but that does not mean we won’t push back against groundless accusations and outright crackdowns”. Another vocal critic, former Xinhua News Agency journalist Ming Jinwei, accused compatriots of being “hopelessly enamoured” with the US in a WeChat essay and referred
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 805
As the war enters its 805th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Fighting Three people were injured after Russia launched more than 70 missiles and drones at power stations and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and six other cities. The attack, one of the biggest in weeks, also led to power cuts in nine Ukrainian regions. At least four children and three adults were injured after a Russian air attack hit a school stadium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said two of the injured – two teenagers – were in serious condition in hospital. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces made additional advances along the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front, taking control of the village of Kyslivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and the village of Novokalynove in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s parliament passed a law that would allow some convicts to enlist in the army in return for a chance at parole, as part of an effort to get more men to the front and relieve exhausted troops. Indian police said they had arrested four people on suspicion of luring young men to Russia with the promise of lucrative jobs or university places only to force them to fight in Ukraine. About 35 Indian men were duped in this manner, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in March. Politics and diplomacy European Union nations reached a tentative breakthrough deal to provide Ukraine with billions in additional funds for arms and ammunition using the windfall profits from frozen Russian central bank assets held in the 27-member bloc. Ministers still need to approve the legal text that will see 90 percent of the proceeds channelled into an EU-run military aid fund for Ukraine, with the remainder supporting Kyiv in other ways, four EU diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency. Russia unleashed a massive attack on Ukraine on Wednesday, which left many areas without power [Andriy Andriyenko/AP Photo] British Home Minister James Cleverly said the United Kingdom would expel Russia’s defence attache, remove diplomatic status from some properties and impose new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits in response to what he described as Moscow’s “malign activity”. Cleverly said the attache was an “undeclared military intelligence officer”. Britain has introduced several waves of sanctions on Russian companies and individuals since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would make an “appropriate response” to Britain’s move. The Kremlin said it had no comment on Ukrainian claims that it had uncovered a plot by Russian agents to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Polish border guards said they had detained a Russian defector, who illegally crossed into Poland from Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow. Border guard spokeswoman Katarzyna Zdanowicz told the AFP news agency that the man “had his military papers on him”. Weapons Herman Smetanin, head of Ukraine’s state arms manufacturer, told the Defence Ministry’s media outlet, ArmyInform, that Ukraine was now producing the same number of long-range attack drones as Russia. He provided no figures. Hungary reiterated that it would not participate in a NATO plan to provide long-term military assistance to Ukraine through a fund worth 100 billion euros ($107bn). Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the plan was a “crazy mission”. Adblock test (Why?)