Tag: europe

Why is Russia’s Putin visiting Vietnam after North Korea? | News

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday held talks with Vietnam’s leaders, hours after flying into Hanoi for a visit to an old ally that has positioned itself as an increasingly influential geopolitical player, wooed by most major nations. Putin flew to Vietnam from North Korea, where he met that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday.

The visit to Vietnam, among other things, is Russia’s way of showcasing that while Putin is treated as a pariah by the West, he still holds political clout in the East, experts have said. Communist-led Vietnam will welcome Putin for a two-day visit, the Kremlin said.

The trip comes after the United States last week imposed more sanctions on Moscow and Western countries reiterated their unwavering support for Ukraine – now fighting its third year of war against Russia – by agreeing to a $50bn loan for Kyiv at a Group of Seven (G7) summit. The visit also comes days after last weekend’s Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland.

Why Vietnam?

While North Korea, where Putin held meetings with leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, is itself a global outcast, heavily sanctioned by the United Nations over its nuclear and missile programmes, Vietnam is a nation that other major countries want close ties with.

A rising economy and a leading exporter of garments, Vietnam today counts the US and other Western countries as important partners. India is a growing defence partner. Vietnam is also a pillar of Southeast Asian efforts to balance ties with China, keeping strong economic ties with Beijing while pushing back against perceived military threats from the Asian giant.

That backdrop makes Vietnam a choice destination for the Russian leader. “Putin will hope his Vietnam visit signals that Russia is far from isolated in Asia amid its recent Ukraine war inroads,” said Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow at the Washington, DC-based Wilson Center. “ … Even though the visit has been pending for a while now and Moscow’s list of regional friends is quite short in practice,” added Parameswaran, who is also the founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter.

What is on the agenda?

Vietnamese President To Lam welcomed Putin in Hanoi on Thursday, committing to further strengthening ties, which he said would enhance peace in the region and globally.

While very few details are available at the moment, their dialogue is expected to focus on strengthening their strategic partnership. In 2001, Russia became the first country to sign a strategic partnership with Vietnam.

Regional and global issues will also feature on the agenda, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. Following the meeting, a joint statement will be adopted and a number of bilateral documents will be signed, it added.

Russia is Vietnam’s biggest weapons supplier, and military and security relations are expected to figure in talks.

Le Kim Phuong, 60, and Le Thu Hong, 62 prepare Russian national flags in advance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Vietnam, in Hanoi, Vietnam [Thinh Nguyen/Reuters]

How strong are Vietnam-Russia ties? 

Ties between the two countries date back to the Soviet Union, which was Hanoi’s biggest weapons supplier – a position that Russia today still occupies.

The Soviet Union’s military support was critical to the Communist Party of Vietnam during key historical events, including the First and Second Indochina Wars against France and the US.

However, the relationship between the two goes beyond its military scope.

“They were once on the same side of history, they shared the same ideology against Western capitalism and imperialism. And the legacy of shared ideology is still there,” said Huong Le Thu, International Crisis Group’s deputy programme director for Asia.

The Soviet Union used to host tens of thousands of Vietnamese students during the Cold War, including the current head of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong.

Hanoi’s architecture also has a Soviet touch, such as the museum of modern Vietnam’s founding father Ho Chi Minh, and an imposing Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Cultural Palace, built in the late 1970s.

What is Vietnam’s position on Ukraine?

Since the start of the war in 2022, Vietnam has officially taken a neutral stance.

“Vietnam has tried to cultivate a careful balance in the Ukraine war between not disrupting ties with Russia as a traditional partner while also signalling that it takes principles like territorial integrity seriously,” said Parameswaran.

As a victim of large occupying or invading powers – the US, France, Japan and China – over the past 80 years, Vietnam holds a country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity being inviolable as a sacrosanct principle.

The centrality of those principles is something that Vietnam has repeatedly underscored at global meetings discussing the Ukraine war, in veiled criticisms of Russia’s war – even though it has not condemned Moscow.

There is also a shared history, and a degree of sympathy, between Vietnam and Ukraine, which was also part of the Soviet Union, say analysts. Ukraine too used to supply weapons to Hanoi and cultural ties meant that many Vietnamese studied in Ukraine forming a large diaspora. Vietnam has supplied humanitarian aid to Ukraine through international organisations during the war.

Yet, Vietnam skipped the Ukraine peace summit last week and abstained on four resolutions at the UN General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbouring country. It also voted against removing Moscow from the UN Human Rights Council.

“Vietnam guides its foreign policy based on its historical legacies and its own interests – it wants to showcase that it’s able to receive Chinese, American and Russian leaders and that it is OK with being friends with anyone – it’s a multidimensional diplomacy,” Le Thu added.

The peak of such flexibility, which some experts called “bamboo diplomacy”, came last year when US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the country. Bamboo, which grows widely in Vietnam, is known for its ability to bend as needed – without snapping – serving as a metaphor for the country’s foreign policy.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024. - Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in North Korea early on June 19, the Kremlin said, kicking off a visit set to boost defence ties between the two nuclear-armed countries as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine. (Photo by Gavriil GRIGOROV / POOL / AFP) / -- EDITOR'S NOTE : THIS IMAGE IS DISTRIBUTED BY THE RUSSIAN STATE OWNED AGENCY SPUTNIK --
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a welcome ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang [Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik via AFP]

What is the US response to Putin’s visit to Vietnam?

The US is a top trade partner of Vietnam and has not taken Putin’s visit well.

“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalise his atrocities,” a US embassy spokesperson in Hanoi told the Reuters news agency. “If he is able to travel freely, it could normalise Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” they added.

The visit to Vietnam is a rare occasion for Putin to travel outside Russia since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The warrant means that any signatory to the ICC must arrest the Russian president should he step into their territory. Vietnam is not an ICC member.

What is China’s role in all of this?

As the war in Ukraine drags into a third year, Moscow’s political and economic dependence on China has deepened. This is relevant to Vietnam, which has a dispute with China in the South China Sea. Beijing claims jurisdiction rights to maritime resources on certain Vietnamese territories rich in oil and gas reserves.

This is where Russia comes into the picture. Two of its energy companies are involved in upstream projects in some of the contested zones.

“Vietnam is concerned that as a result of Russia’s growing dependence on China, Beijing could use its leverage with Moscow to undermine Vietnamese interests. This would include increased pressure on the Kremlin to withdraw its state-owned energy companies,” Ian Storey, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, wrote in a research paper in March.

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‘Orwellian’: EU’s push to mass scan private messages on WhatsApp, Signal | Technology

The European Union is considering controversial proposals to mass scan private communications on encrypted messaging apps for child sex abuse material.

Under the proposed legislation, photos, videos, and URLs sent on popular apps such as WhatsApp and Signal would be scanned by an artificial intelligence-powered algorithm against a government database of known abuse material.

The Council of the EU, one of the bloc’s two legislative bodies, is due to vote on the legislation, popularly known as Chat Control 2.0, on Thursday.

If passed by the council, which represents the governments of the bloc’s 27 member states, the proposals will move forward to the next legislative phase and negotiations on the exact terms of the law.

While EU officials have argued that Chat Control 2.0 will help prevent child sex exploitation, encrypted messaging platforms and privacy advocates have fiercely opposed the proposals, likening them to the mass surveillance of George Orwell’s 1984.

Why are the EU’s plans so controversial?

Critics argue that Chat Control 2.0 is incompatible with end-to-end encryption, which ensures that messages can be read only by the sender and the intended recipient.

While the proposed “upload moderation” regime would scan messages before they are sent, critics have slammed the measures as a “backdoor” by another name that would leave everyone’s communications vulnerable to potential hacking or interference by third parties.

“We can call it a backdoor, a front door, or ‘upload moderation.’ But whatever we call it, each one of these approaches creates a vulnerability that can be exploited by hackers and hostile nation states, removing the protection of unbreakable math and putting in its place a high-value vulnerability,” Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, said this week in a statement.

Opponents also say the proposals would hand enormous power to private companies, many of them based in the United States, to engage in the mass surveillance of European citizens.

Once a backdoor exists, it could be used to scan for more than just child sex abuse material, according to Matthew Green, an expert on applied cryptography at Johns Hopkins University.

“People think Chat Control is about specific crimes. No, that’s not what’s at stake. What’s being made is an architecture decision for how private messaging systems work: if it passes, by law these systems will be wired for mass surveillance. This can be used for any purpose,” Green said in a post on X.

Member of European Parliament Patrick Breyer, from the Pirate Party Germany, has likened the proposals to adding government spyware to every device in the EU.

“We’re on the brink of a surveillance regime as extreme as we witness nowhere else in the free world. Not even Russia and China have managed to implement bugs in our pocket the way the EU is intending to,” Breyer said in a statement.

Who supports the law?

Proposals to scan private communications en masse for child sex abuse material were first introduced by European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, who is Swedish, in 2022.

Belgium, the current head of the council, proposed the latest version of the legislation as a compromise after more invasive proposals received pushback from the European Parliament.

Under the latest iteration, scans would be limited to photos, videos, and URLs and users would have to consent to the scan.

Anyone who did not consent would be prevented from uploading or sharing photos and videos.

Supporters say the proposals are necessary to fight the scourge of child exploitation, which officials say is being facilitated by encrypted platforms and the emergence of AI-powered image generation software.

In 2022, the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said 68 percent of the record 32 million cases of child exploitation material reported by service providers were from “chats, messaging, or email services” within the EU.

The United Kingdom-based Internet Watch Foundation reported similar findings, identifying the EU as the source of two-thirds of abuse material.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have frequently expressed concern about criminals using encrypted messaging apps to avoid detection.

Telegram and Signal have both been used by armed groups ranging from ISIL (ISIS) to the Oath Keepers.

Intelligence agencies, militaries, police, and some EU ministries would be exempt from the measures, according to leaked documents obtained by French media organisation Contexte.

Who opposes the law?

Among EU member states, only Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland have taken a clear stance against the proposals, according to Breyer, while Italy, Finland, Sweden, Greece and Portugal, among others, have yet to make their position clear.

Individual MEPs in countries including Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria have also expressed concerns, some of them arguing that surveillance should only be directed towards specific individuals based on probable cause as determined by a judge.

In November, the EU Parliament, which must approve most EU laws, voted to oppose “indiscriminate chat control” in favour of targeted surveillance.

Tech companies and digital rights groups opposed to the proposals include Mozilla, Signal, Proton, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, European Digital Rights, the Internet Freedom Foundation, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden on Wednesday described the proposals as a “terrifying mass surveillance measure”.

How would Chat Control 2.0 work in practice?

Even if Chat Control 2.0 moves forward, experts say the current version of the law supported by Belgium would be very difficult, if not impossible, to enforce with end-to-end encryption.

In the UK, which passed the similarly-themed Online Safety Bill, the government has admitted that the technology does not yet exist to scan encrypted messages without compromising security generally.

Tech platforms such as Signal and WhatsApp, which had threatened to pull out of the UK, considered this a partial victory.

Critics also say targeting messaging apps will be ineffective at stopping child abuse material given the existence of private networks and the dark web.

AI-powered algorithms have also shown themselves prone to making mistakes, raising the possibility of innocent people being reported to law enforcement.

The New York Times reported in 2022 that Google’s AI tool for detecting abuse material wrongly flagged a stay-at-home dad in San Francisco after he sent a photo of his son’s penis to the doctor, resulting in a police investigation and the termination of his Google accounts.

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The faces behind the numbers: 120 million displaced people worldwide | Refugees News

One out of every 69 people on Earth is now displaced.

That is about 120 million people, or 1.5 percent of the world’s population, who have been uprooted from their homes.

Behind these numbers are countless human stories of families separated, livelihoods lost and communities shattered.

Sixty-eight million of those are internally displaced within their own countries. The rest are refugees in need of protection (43.4 million) and people who are seeking asylum (6.9 million), according to the annual displacement report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) .

To raise awareness about the situation of refugees worldwide, the UN designated June 20 each year as World Refugee Day.

If forcibly displaced people formed a country, it would be the 13th most populated in the world just behind Japan. About half of these forcibly displaced people are children.

Visualising 72 years of refugee journeys

In 1951, the UN established the Refugee Convention to protect the rights of refugees in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. In 1967, the convention was expanded to address displacement across the rest of the world.

When the Refugee Convention was born, there were 2.1 million refugees. By 1980, the number of refugees recorded by the UN surpassed 10 million for the first time. Wars in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s caused the number of refugees to double to 20 million by 1990.

The number of refugees remained fairly consistent over the next two decades.

However, the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 together with civil wars in South Sudan and Syria resulted in refugee numbers exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021.

The war in Ukraine, which started in 2022, led to one of the fastest growing refugee crises since World War II with 5.7 million people forced to flee Ukraine in less than a year. By the end of 2023, six million Ukrainians remained forcibly displaced.

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In 2023, conflict in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary increased the number of refugees to 1.5 million. Before the war, Sudan had taken in many Syrian refugees. When the war started, the number of Syrian refugees in Sudan dropped from 93,500 in 2022 to 26,600 in 2023 as many left for other countries. Thousands of people are still being displaced daily more than a year after the conflict began.

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Most recently, Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has had a devastating toll on the Palestinian population. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, estimated that from October to December, up to 1.7 million people – more than 75 percent of the population – have been displaced within the Gaza Strip with many having been forced to flee multiple times.

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely dire with all 2.3 million inhabitants facing food shortages and the threat of famine.

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As of 2024, almost three-quarters (72 percent) of all refugees came from just five countries: Afghanistan (6.4 million), Syria (6.4 million), Venezuela (6.1 million), Ukraine (6 million) and Palestine (6 million).

Under international law, refugees are people who are forced to flee their home countries to escape persecution or a serious threat to their life, physical integrity or freedom.

Where do refugees settle?

Almost 70 percent of refugees and others in need of international protection live in countries next to their countries of origin.

Globally, the largest refugee populations are hosted by Iran (3.8 million), Turkey (3.3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Germany (2.6 million) and Pakistan (2 million).

Nearly all refugees in Iran and Pakistan are Afghans while most refugees in Turkey are Syrians.

In the past decade, refugee numbers have increased in these major host countries except for Turkey, where numbers have dropped by 14 percent since 2021.

Germany is the only major host country that does not border the main refugee source countries. Most refugees in Germany at the end of 2023 were from Ukraine (1.1 million), Syria (705,800), Afghanistan (255,100) and Iraq (146,500).

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Putin and Kim take each other for a spin in Aurus limousine | Politics News

The drive took place after the two leaders signed a deal that included a mutual defence pledge, one of Russia’s most significant moves in the Asia Pacific in years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un went for a spin in an Aurus limousine on Wednesday, taking turns at the wheel of the Russian-built car.

The carefully staged public relations exercise was an opportunity to show their close working relationship and their ease in each other’s company as Putin made his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years.

The drive took place after the two leaders signed a deal that included a mutual defence pledge, one of Russia’s most significant moves in the Asia Pacific in years and that Kim said amounted to an “alliance”.

Video released by Russian state television showed Putin jumping behind the wheel of the Aurus, the model of his official presidential car back home in Russia. Kim was seen grinning in the passenger seat while they drove around a park with the two men then swapping seats.

One of Putin’s aides said earlier on Wednesday that the Russian leader had presented Kim with an Aurus as a gift.

It would be his second Russia-made limousine.

North Korea’s state media reported in March that Kim had taken his first ride in an Aurus after Putin gave him one of the cars in February.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said it had assessed that the gift of the Aurus was a violation of United Nations sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

Kim is thought to have a large collection of luxury cars including models by Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Rolls Royce that have been smuggled into the country in breach of the sanctions.

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Fossil fuel use, emissions hit record highs in 2023, industry report says | Energy

Renewables’ share of global energy consumption reaches nearly 15 percent, an all-time high.

Global fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions hit record highs last year, even as renewables generated more energy than ever before, an industry report has found.

Fossil fuel consumption rose 1.5 percent compared with 2022, while emissions increased 2.1 percent, the Statistical Review of World Energy report showed on Thursday.

At the same time, renewables’ share of energy consumption hit 14.6 percent, up 0.4 percent from the previous year.

Nick Wayth, CEO of the Energy Institute, said that while demand for fossil fuels is peaking in advanced economies, economic development and improvements in quality of life in emerging economies continue to drive fossil growth.

“The progress of the transition is slow, but the big picture masks diverse energy stories playing out across different geographies,” Wayth said in a foreword to the report.

The Global South accounted for 56 percent of total energy consumption, with its use growing at twice the rate of the global average, the report said.

China was by far the largest consumer of coal – accounting for 56 percent of the world’s total consumption – while India’s consumption exceeded that of Europe and North America combined for the first time ever, according to the report.

By contrast, coal consumption in Europe and North America fell to its lowest levels since 1965, the report said.

In the United States, coal consumption fell by 17 percent and has halved over the last decade.

China and India also saw big increases in the use of natural gas, with consumption rising 7 percent, according to the report.

Demand in Europe fell by 7 percent, keeping global consumption relatively flat.

China also drove the adoption of renewables, accounting for 63 percent of new global wind and solar capacity.

The Energy Institute, which represents the global energy sector, has published the annual report in collaboration with consultancies KPMG and Kearney since 2023.

The institute took over the publication of the report from BP, which had authored the report since the 1950s.

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 846 | Russia-Ukraine war News

As the war enters its 846th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, June 20, 2024.

Fighting

  • At least two people were injured and residential buildings were damaged in Ukraine’s western region of Lviv after a wave of Russian drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure over six regions of the country. The air force said it destroyed 19 out of 21 drones launched by Russia.
  • Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had “intensified” their assaults near Toretsk on the front line in the eastern Donetsk region and “launched five assault operations at once”, targeting surrounding towns and villages. The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had “improved” their positions around Toretsk, which had a population of about 32,000 people before the war.
  • Rostov regional governor Vasily Golubev said a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal in southern Russia continued into a second day despite firefighters’ efforts to extinguish the flames. The facility was struck on Tuesday.
  • Viktoriia Litvinova, Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, said the country had created a national registry to document cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by Russian forces. Litvinova told The Associated Press news agency that 303 cases of conflict-related sexual violence had been registered since Russia began its full-scale invasion, with 191 cases involving women and 112 involving men.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed on a new comprehensive strategic partnership treaty during Putin’s first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years. Putin thanked Kim for his “unwavering” support in Ukraine, while Kim promised “full support and solidarity” for the Russian invasion.
  • Putin then travelled on to Vietnam. In an opinion piece to coincide with the visit, Putin applauded Hanoi for supporting “a pragmatic way to solve the crisis” in Ukraine. Vietnam has not condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but has built alliances with the United States, its biggest export market, and the European Union.
  • French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said that he backed Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russia, but if elected prime minister at polls on June 30 and July 7, he would not provide Kyiv with missiles that would allow it to strike Russian territory. Bardella also said he would stand by France’s commitments to the NATO military alliance if he became prime minister.
  • The security service of Ukraine (SBU) said it had arrested a Kharkiv resident allegedly recruited by Russian agents on an online dating platform, saying he had tried to provide Moscow with sensitive information on Ukrainian military facilities and equipment. The man faces as many as eight years in prison if convicted, it said in a statement.
  • Separately, the SBU said a man arrested in March last year on suspicion of being an agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service had been jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of helping Russia identify targets for strikes in the southern Odesa region.

Weapons

  • Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide, said North Korea was “actively cooperating” with Russia militarily, and called for greater international isolation of both countries. “There is no doubt that North Korea … deliberately provides resources for the mass murder of Ukrainians,” he told the AFP news agency. United Nations sanctions monitors, in their last report before Russia blocked the renewal of their mandate, said North Korean missile fragments had been found in Kharkiv.

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Climate activists arrested after spray painting UK’s Stonehenge monument | Climate Crisis News

UK police say they arrested two people ‘on suspicion of damaging’ the prehistoric monument, named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Two climate protesters were arrested for spraying orange paint on the ancient Stonehenge monument, a prehistoric UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern England, police have said.

The act by Just Stop Oil was quickly condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday as a “disgraceful act of vandalism”. Labour leader Keir Starmer, his main opponent in the election next month, called the group “pathetic” and said the damage was “outrageous”.

The incident came just a day before thousands are expected to gather at the 4,500-year-old stone circle to celebrate the summer solstice – the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.

English Heritage, which manages the site, said it was “extremely upsetting” and said curators were investigating the damage. Just Stop Oil said on the social media platform X that the paint was made of cornstarch and would dissolve in the rain.

The Wiltshire Police said the pair of protesters were arrested on suspicion of damaging the monument.

“Officers attended the scene and arrested two people on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument,” police said. “Our inquiries are ongoing and we are working closely with English Heritage.”

Footage posted on social media showed activists, wearing “Just Stop Oil” branded T-shirts, spraying a cluster of the megalithic standing stones with the orange substance from a small canister.

The group said Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old student, and Rajan Naidu, 73, had used “orange cornflour” for the stunt.

Stonehenge was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in stages starting 5,000 years ago, with the unique stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period about 2,500 BC.

Some of the stones, the so-called bluestones, are known to have come from southwest Wales, nearly 240km (150 miles) away, but the origins of others remain a mystery.

Just Stop Oil is one of many groups around Europe that have gained attention – and received criticism – for disrupting sporting events, splashing paint and food on famous works of art and interrupting traffic to draw attention to the global climate crisis.

The group, formed in 2022, said it acted in response to the Labour Party’s recent election manifesto. Labour has said that if it wins the election on July 4, it would not issue further licenses for oil and gas exploration. Just Stop Oil backs the moratorium but said it is not enough.

In a statement, the group said Labour, which is leading in polls and widely expected by pundits and politicians to lead the next government, needs to go further and sign a treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.

“Continuing to burn coal, oil and gas will result in the death of millions,” the group said in a statement.

“Failure to commit to defending our communities will mean Just Stop Oil supporters… will join in resistance this summer, if their own governments do not take meaningful action.”



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“The Israeli army is one of the most criminal in the world” says UN expert | Israel-Palestine conflict

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“The Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world” Chris Sidoti, a member of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters. The COI was presenting findings of its report into abuses committed on both sides since Israel’s war on Gaza began.

Published On 19 Jun 2024

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Euro 2024: by the numbers – Ronaldo on target and the Germans are efficient | UEFA Euro 2024 News

Star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo may not have kicked a goal at Euro 2024 yet – but that’s not for a lack of attempts.

Cristiano Ronaldo had the most attempts on target and hosts Germany made the best use of their chances in the first round of pool matches at the European Championship, while a forward from Romania has been the quickest across the grass so far.

Ronaldo did not get on the scoresheet from his three shots on target in Portugal’s 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic on Tuesday and is one of four players to have five attempts at goal in total along with France’s Marcus Thuram, Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze and Christian Eriksen of Denmark.

It has been a tournament for early – and late – goals so far, with six of the 34 netted inside the opening 15 minutes, and 14 in the first half-hour. There have been four goals scored past the 90-minute mark already.

With a healthy average of 2.84 goals per game, or one every 32 minutes, only five of the 24 teams failed to find the back of the net in their opening fixtures.

Albania’s Nedim Bajrami scored the fastest goal in Euros history after 23 seconds against Italy, though his side ended up losing 2-1.

Portugal led the possession numbers with 69 percent, while hosts Germany were similarly dominant with 68 percent as they thumped Scotland 5-1.

The Germans have the best passing accuracy with 94 percent, led by their 21-year-old attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala, who completed 100 percent of his 33 passes to teammates.

Serbia put in the joint most number of tackles with 20 in their 1-0 loss to England, a figure matched by Turkey in their rip-roaring 3-1 victory over Georgia.

Two players managed two assists in the first round of games, Romania forward Dennis Man as they beat Ukraine 3-0 and, perhaps more surprising, Netherlands defender Nathan Ake in the 2-1 victory over Poland.

Turkey had the most shots at goal as a team with 22, one more than the Netherlands, and also had the highest expected goals (xG) – a measure of how promising their chances were – with 2.62.

The most efficient side was Germany, who netted five times from an xG of 2.04, and the most wasteful was Croatia, as they were held scoreless by Spain in their 3-0 loss despite an xG of 2.27.

Czech goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek was the busiest between the posts, making seven saves, one more than the Netherlands’s Bart Verbruggen.

Four players were clocked at running at more than 35 kilometres per hour (21mph), headed by Romania forward Valentin Mihaila (35.9km/h, 22.3mph).

Belgium’s Jeremy Doku (35.3km/h, 21.9mph), Rasmus Hojlund (35.3km/h) from Denmark and France captain Kylian Mbappe (35.2km/h, 21.8mph) were the others.

No player covered more grass than Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who ran 13.9km (8.6 miles) against England.

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Will the tariff row between the EU and China spark a trade war? | Elections

Main political parties have laid out their economic plans in election manifestos.

The economy is turning a corner.

That is the message delivered by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak since he called the general elections for July 4.

But the latest data shows the worst might not be over for the United Kingdom yet. Economic growth flatlined in April and millions across the UK are still feeling the pinch of high food, energy and housing prices.

Whichever party wins the election will face the challenge of reviving growth while limiting a rise in government debt.

And the tariff battle between the European Union and China is picking up speed.

Plus, Elon Musk’s eye-popping pay.

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