Friday, March 3, 2023

 

UN rights chief slams Israeli minister's 'unfathomable' comments

20
Nina LARSON
In this article:
  • Bezalel Smotrich
    Israeli politician

The UN human rights chief on Friday denounced the "unfathomable" call by an Israeli minister for a flashpoint Palestinian town to be "wiped out", urging an end to the violence.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made his comments on Wednesday, days after two settlers were shot dead in Huwara, killings, that led to Israeli settlers to attack the northern West Bank town.

"I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out," Smotrich said. "I think the State of Israel should do it."

Later, he tweeted that he "didn't mean to erase the village of Huwara, but only to act in a targeted way against the terrorists".

But UN rights chief Volker Turk, speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, denounced Smotrich's original comments as "an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility".

Washington, a staunch ally of Israel, was even more blunt in its response to Smotrich's comments.

"They were irresponsible, they were repugnant, they were disgusting," US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

"Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence," he added.

A French foreign ministry statement also condemned the comments as "unacceptable, irresponsible and unworthy coming from a member of the Israeli government".

"These comments only fuel hatred and fuel the spiral of current violence," the statement added, appealing for calm.

- Appeal for calm -

Smotrich, an extreme-right settler, spoke during a surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and specifically in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

The attack on Huwara late Sunday saw hundreds of settlers set homes and cars ablaze and hurl stones, while a Palestinian man was killed in the nearby village of Zaatara.

More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

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Wednesday, March 1, 2023

 

Bashing China Is a Bipartisan Passion in Evenly Divided US Congress

Anna Edgerton

(Bloomberg) -- In a politically fractured Congress, a spate of hearings on Tuesday demonstrated that going after China has become one of Washington’s most unifying causes.

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Just back from a two-week recess, the House of Representatives held no fewer than three hearings and debated more than a dozen bills focusing on the danger posed by what lawmakers argue is an increasingly aggressive Communist Party.

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The day was capped with the first meeting of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a new congressional body led by 38-year-old Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher. Designed to mimic the Jan. 6 hearings on the insurrection at the capital, it featured videos and charts warning of President Xi Jinping’s global ambitions — and was even held in the same room where those hearings occurred.

“We must act with a sense of urgency,” Gallagher said in opening the three-hour hearing, which didn’t attract live television coverage. “Our policy over the next ten years will set the stage for the next hundred. We cannot allow the CCP‘s tech-powered dystopia to prevail.”

The hearing underscored the depth of animosity that has blossomed within the US toward China as the world’s two largest economies spar over everything from Taiwan to the Covid-19 pandemic to high-tech semiconductors and the alleged spy balloon that the US shot down. That bipartisan anger has pressured President Joe Biden to double down on export controls and sanctions to counter Xi despite Biden’s promises to keep the relationship from deteriorating further.

Part of the pressure on Biden is to restrict the US operations of TikTok, the popular short-video app owned by a Chinese company. The administration said late Monday that federal employees had 30 days to remove TikTok from government devices, implementing a congressional requirement.

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Japan Foreign Minister Set to Attend Quad Talks Hosted by India

1
Jon Herskovitz
In this article:
  • Yoshimasa Hayashi
    Japanese politician

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is set to attend a get together of top diplomats from the so-called Quad nations hosted by India, after he skipped a G-20 meeting in New Delhi to be present at a parliamentary committee in Tokyo.

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Hayashi gained parliamentary approval allowing him to attend a Friday meeting of Quad nations that also includes the US and Australia, Kyodo News reported. Japan dispatched a deputy minister to attend the G-20 meeting of foreign ministers in India that starts Wednesday.

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A committee in Japan’s upper house of parliament began debate Wednesday on the budget. All members of the cabinet are customarily present for the initial sessions of the budget committee, which is planned to run for two days.

Hayashi had said Japan would “diligently participate” in the events when he faced questions from reporters Tuesday over whether keeping the foreign minister at home for a domestic matter could be seen as a slight to India. Japan has been seeking to bolster security and other ties with Narendra Modi’s government amid growing concerns about China’s assertive behavior in the region, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The decision not to dispatch the foreign minister to the G-20 meeting may have been more about internal politics in Japan, rather then sending any diplomatic message. Hayashi had already arranged bilateral discussions with some of his counterparts on the sidelines of the meeting, Kyodo previously reported.

Read: Top Japan Diplomat Set to Skip G-20 Talks Hosted by India (2)

Bolstering ties with India has been a priority for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government as it seeks partners beyond its sole treaty ally, the US, to counter security threats posed by the likes of China. The Quad is a prominent format for cooperation. It has grown in stature in recent years as a counter to Beijing, which has criticized the group as a “clique” that could stoke a new Cold War.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2023

 

Drone crash near Moscow was failed attack, governor says

DroneANTON GERASHCHENKO
A picture appears to show a Ukrainian manufactured UJ-22 drone
By George Wright
BBC News

A drone has crashed in the Moscow region in what was likely an attempt to target civilian infrastructure, the regional governor said.

Andrei Vorobyov was speaking after the defence ministry reported downing two Ukrainian drones in southern Russia.

Ukraine does not claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.

Russian energy giant Gazprom operates a facility near the village of Gubastovo, about 100 km (62 miles) from Moscow, where the drone crashed.

Gazprom told Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti that its operations in the Kolomna district had not been interrupted.

The target of the drone in Kolomna "was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, which was not damaged", Mr Vorobyov posted on Telegram.

"There are no casualties or damage on the ground. The FSB (Russian security service) and other competent authorities are investigating," he added.

Images shared by Russian media and officials show a damaged drone in a snow-covered field in front of a forest of birch trees. The area around the Gazprom facility is heavily forested.

The appearance of the drone matches that of the UJ-22 Airborne, a product of Ukrainian manufacturer Ukrjet.

Ukrjet says the vehicle has a range of 800km - enough for it to reach the Kolomna area from Ukraine.

A reverse image reveals no previous matches for the image, suggesting it is recent.

Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, tweeted a photo of the drone.

"It is more than 500km away from Russian border with Ukraine. Soon Putin might get very afraid to show himself in public as drones can reach far distances," he wrote alongside the photo.

If Ukraine was behind the Kolomna drone, it would be the closest attempted drone attack to the capital since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.

It came as the Russian defence ministry said its forces had downed two Ukrainian drones in southern Russia.

The ministry accused Kyiv of attempting to use drones "to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar region and the Adygea Republic", adding that they were "neutralised by electronic warfare units".

Moscow has accused Ukraine of being behind attacks on Russian military infrastructure during the war, but Kyiv has not confirmed this.

A Ukrainian drone attack on an airbase for bombers in southern Russia in December left three people dead, Moscow said. The Ukrainian military did not officially admit to the attack, but air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said the explosions were the result of what Russia was doing on Ukrainian soil.

Just weeks before, Russia accused Ukraine of a similar attack on the same airfield, which is home to bombers that have carried out missile attacks on Ukraine.

In August, a series of blasts rocked a military base in Crimea, in what was seen as a significant expansion of the conflict by Ukraine into Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine later claimed responsibility for that attack.

President Vladimir Putin told the FSB on Tuesday to intensify its activity against what he said was increasing espionage and sabotage by Ukraine and the West.

He instructed the FSB to strengthen security in territories occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine. He said units deployed at the border must stop sabotage groups and prevent the passage of illegal weapons and ammunition.

"We need to beef up our counterintelligence in general, because Western special services have traditionally been very active in relation to Russia," he said.

"And now they have put in additional personnel, technical and other resources against us. We need to respond accordingly."

Russia's defence ministry said its fighter jets were involved in a training exercise in the country's western airspace on Tuesday, hours after airspace over St Petersburg was closed due to reports of an unidentified object.

(Additional reporting by Adam Robinson)

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