03 World

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Excerpt from www.cbsnews.com

Jerusalem — An Israeli tank brigade took control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, as Israel moved forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his country in a video address later Tuesday that he had ordered troops “to operate in Rafah” as his government rejected a cease-fire proposal backed by Hamas the previous afternoon.

The tanks moved in around the Rafah checkpoint after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group saying Monday that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel quickly insisted the deal didn’t meet its core demands and rejected it, though officials said Israel would continue discussing the proposal.

The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the seven-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

As for the proposal that brought brief hope of an imminent truce late on Monday, Netanyahu dismissed it in his video message as an attempt by Hamas “to torpedo the entry of our forces into Rafah,” which he had repeatedly vowed to order.

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Excerpt from amp.scmp.com

Her remarks come at a time of increased geopolitical uncertainty over a number of challenges, most notably an escalating rivalry between the US and China and the war in Ukraine.

Although economic fragmentation is not yet as severe as it was during the Cold War, Gopinath said, it carries a much greater potential cost thanks to higher global reliance on trade.

China’s share of US imports fell by 8 percentage points between 2017 and 2023 as trade and overall relations between the two countries fragmented, while the US’ share of China’s exports fell by about 4 percentage points during the same period.

Trade between blocs of countries aligned with either China or the US was also negatively affected, Gopinath said.

Between the middle of 2022 and 2023, the average weighted quarter-on-quarter trade growth between US-leaning countries and China-leaning countries fell by nearly five percentage points compared with the five-year period between 2017 and early 2022.

Similar patterns could also be observed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with trade and investment between blocs falling more than trade within blocs.

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Excerpt from www.washingtontimes.com

China’s Communist rulers intend to replace America, establish new world order  Washington Times

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Excerpt from abcnews.go.com

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk says he is calling a special meeting of the secret services to discuss alleged Russian and Belarusian influence

May 7, 2024, 1:24 PM ET

• 3 min read

WARSAW, Poland — WARSAW, Poland (AP) —

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk called Tuesday for a special meeting of the secret services to discuss alleged Russian and Belarusian infiltration after a Polish judge who had access to sensitive state information defected to Belarus.

Authorities in NATO and European Union member Poland are investigating the judge, Tomasz Szmydt, on suspicions that he was acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.

The Polish government said in a statement Tuesday that “Szmydt had constant and direct access to classified information. He has also been in contact with Belarusians for a long time. This situation should be of the utmost concern.”

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Excerpt from www.army-technology.com

China stands accused of hacking the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a major cyberattack on armed forces’ SSCL payroll data system.

The data breach compromised the names and bank details of current military personnel and veterans, Sky News reported.

When addressing the House of Commons today (7 May), UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said a “malign actor” was responsible for the attack, but that the government “cannot rule out state involvement”. He added that there was “no evidence that any data has been removed”.

Shapps has announced a “multi-point plan to support and protect personnel”, an MoD spokesperson told Army Technology.

The MoD has been working urgently to grasp the scale of the cyberattack over the last three days since discovering the data breach.

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Excerpt from tvpworld.com

Russia may incite provocations ahead of Victory Day: Lithuanian intelligence  TVP World

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Excerpt from www.iraqinews.com

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Interior began purchasing medium-range weapons from citizens after opening 697 registration offices in Baghdad and the rest of the Iraqi governorates.

The Interior Ministry announced earlier that it allocated one billion Iraqi dinars (more than $763,000) for each governorate to complete the purchasing process, according to Alsabah Daily, the official newspaper in Iraq.

The secretary of the committee tasked with weapon control, Brigadier General Mansour Ali Sultan, said in November that 70 percent of a database related to arms possessed by individuals has been completed.

“The Iraqi law allows every citizen who is 25 years old or older to possess weapons,” Sultan explained.

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Excerpt from apnews.com

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Campus protests by pro-Palestinian activists spread across Europe on Tuesday as some called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza, while schools increasingly faced the question under debate in the U.S.: Allow or intervene?

German police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin’s Free University. Protesters occupied a university building in Amsterdam hours after police detained 169 people at a different campus location. Two remained in custody on suspicion of committing public violence.

Elsewhere in Europe, some student camps have been allowed to stay in places like the lawns of Cambridge. In recent days, students have held protests or set up encampments in Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, France and Britain.

In Berlin, protesters put up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them. Most covered their faces with medical masks and draped keffiyeh scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.”

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Excerpt from www.ctvnews.ca

A knife attack at a hospital in southwestern China on Tuesday killed two people and injured 21 others, authorities said.

No motive was given for the attack at Zhenxiong County People’s Hospital in Yunnan province. The suspect is a male from a village in the same county, a Zhenxiong police statement said. The injured were being treated, it said.

A witness told Red Star News, an online outlet, that he had narrowly escaped the attack and that a doctor or doctors were among the injured. Video from the witness showed people who were bleeding and had fallen to the ground, and one older person trying to help another, the Red Star social media post said.

Earlier media reports said 23 people had been injured, but the police statement said the total was 21. A video posted online by Guizhou Province Television showed a man being taken away by police.

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Excerpt from www.wionews.com

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday (May 8) ordered the transfer of former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, from the Banigala residence to Adiala Jail, her lawyer said.

In her petition to the Islamabad HC, Bibi accused the authorities of violating her privacy and serving contaminated food in her home cell.

She and her lawyers also said that the Banigala residence, which had been declared a sub-jail, was dominated by men. The prison staff has denied the claims.

Bibi further accused the authorities of detaining her in one room at Khan’s hilltop mansion in Islamabad. The couple has been detained since January conviction on charges of illegally selling state gifts.

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Excerpt from www.ndtv.com

Kim Ki Nam, one of the longest-serving North Korean officials who served all three generations of its leaders cementing their political legitimacy and heading the propaganda apparatus for the dynastic state, has died, official media said on Wednesday.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim at 2 a.m. on Wednesday to pay tribute “with bitter grief over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the country until the very end, it said.

Kim died on Tuesday at the age of 94, official KCNA news agency said.

He was part of a core group of loyal officials who had worked to sustain the three generations of Kims by solidifying their legitimacy carrying the blood line of a revolutionary leader who founded the state in 1945.

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Excerpt from www.ndtv.com

The White House said Tuesday the Israel’s closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable”.

Washington:

The White House said Tuesday the closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable,” after Israel sent tanks into the southern city of Rafah and seized control of the crossing with Egypt.

“The crossings that have been closed need to be reopened, it is unacceptable for them to be closed,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing, adding that another crossing, at Kerem Shalom, was expected to reopen Wednesday.

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Excerpt from uk.news.yahoo.com

Georgia’s ruling party bussed in thousands of people from across the country on Monday for a rally in the capital aimed at countering days of mass anti-government protests over a controversial “foreign influence” bill.

The Black Sea Caucasus nation has been gripped by mass anti-government protests since mid-April, when the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced plans to pass a law that critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

The European Union has said that, if adopted, the proposed legislation would undermine Tbilisi‘s long-standing bid for EU membership.

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Excerpt from www.nytimes.com

China’s Xi Visits Europe, Seeking Strategic Opportunity  The New York Times

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Excerpt from www.voanews.com

Washington — The United States called Monday on Rwanda to punish forces behind an attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, not backing down from charges Kigali is meddling in its neighbor’s affairs.

The State Department accused Rwandan forces Friday of joining M23 rebels in blasts on a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma that killed at least nine people.

Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo described the U.S. accusation as “ridiculous,” writing on X that Rwanda had a “professional army” that would “never attack” a camp for displaced people.

Asked Monday if the United States stood by its claim, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We absolutely do.”

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Excerpt from amp.scmp.com

“[But] that does not reduce the competition or the conflicts between China and US in other fields, especially not in the domain of technology … [and] if Trump wins the coming election, I think China and the US will have more conflicts in the economic [field].”

The November 15 summit saw Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden agree to manage differences, after prolonged tensions had sparked widespread concerns over global instability.

A string of high-level exchanges since that summit, including recent visits to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, as well as working group meetings to address contentious issues, have been seen as positive signs of the rival powers’ willingness to engage.

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Excerpt from www.batimes.com.ar

Foreign Minister Diana Mondino has told the European Union’s top diplomat that she wants to deepen Argentina’s “strategic relationship” with its “natural partner.”

Mondino, 65, made the remarks during a high-level meeting in Brussels on Monday with EU diplomat Josep Borrell, according to sources from the delegation.

Borrel, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, shared a working lunch with Mondino that focused on Argentina’s interest in “deepening the strategic relationship with the EU and its member countries,” said the sources.

According to Argentine diplomatic sources, at the meeting Mondino assured Borrell that Buenos Aires considers the EU to be its “natural partner.”

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Excerpt from nordicmonitor.com

The Turkish foreign minister has implied that an understanding has been reached with an Iran-backed Shiite militia force — the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Al-Hashd al-Shaabi) — in Iraq regarding the cleansing of the Sinjar region in northern Iraq of elements of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

However, experts have concerns about this collaboration since the group under Iran’s control has had close ties with the PKK in the past, and they claim that this collaboration, if successful, could lead to an increase in Iran’s influence in the region.

In an interview with Al Arabiya on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said discussions have been ongoing with the PMF in Sinjar for a military offensive against the PKK. Fidan emphasized the significance of this dialogue, underscoring the evolving role of the the PMF in Iraq following the passage of new laws. Collaborating closely with Falah al-Fayyad, the head of the PMF, Fidan expressed confidence in the force’s commitment to eradicating the PKK presence in Sinjar. He outlined a two-stage plan, starting with the siege of Sinjar, followed by a demand for PKK withdrawal from the region. Fidan emphasized the necessity for Iraqi soldiers to confront the PKK when needed.

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Excerpt from www.intellinews.com

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Serbia on May 7, a symbolic date that is the 25th anniversary of the accidental Nato bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade.

Xi is visiting Serbia as one of three stops on a tour of Europe, between his visits to France and Hungary. The two East European countries on his tour have both emerged as important allies of China in the region, and have benefited from inflows of Chinese investment.

Xi referred to the embassy bombing in an opinion piece published in the daily Politika on May 7, writing of the importance of peace as well as China’s resolve to prevent such tragedies from recurring.

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Excerpt from en.wenews.pk

TRIPOLI: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Libya on Tuesday to sign cooperation agreements with leaders from both administrations in the North African country.

Accompanied by a ministerial delegation, Meloni held discussions with leaders from both administrations in Libya, focusing on bolstering cooperation in various sectors.

During her second visit to Libya since assuming office in October 2022, Meloni met with the head of the Tripoli-based government, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, to finalize several “declarations of intent” aimed at enhancing collaboration. According to Libyan officials, these agreements encompass areas such as health, education, research, youth, and sports.

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Excerpt from www.aljazeera.com

Sanders says that he will run for another term as country faces ‘difficult political moment’ amid schisms over Gaza.

United States Senator Bernie Sanders, the 82-year-old leftist and two-time presidential candidate from Vermont, has announced that he will run for reelection amid rumours of possible retirement.

Sanders, whose presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 galvanised young people and progressives, announced on Monday that he would run for a fourth six-year term in the US Senate.

“Let me thank the people of Vermont, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me the opportunity to serve them in the United States Senate. It has been the honour of my life,” Sanders, an independent, said in a video recording.

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Excerpt from time.com

(JERUSALEM) — Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza.

It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signaling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza’s population, are sheltering.

An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed.