Day: May 22, 2024

Live update: Iran leader to Haniyeh: ‘Zionist entity will one day be eliminated, Palestine will rise from the river to the sea’ https://t.co/h87hTY1KJF

— ToI ALERTS (@TOIAlerts) May 22, 2024

“U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan distanced himself from an assertion from U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, who said earlier on May 22 that the U.S. and U.K. have evidence that China is supplying or about to supply lethal aid to Russia”.https://t.co/0Vel14xKob

— Dr. Dan Lomas (@Sandbagger_01) May 22, 2024

#TomorrowsPapersToday

How Russia infiltrated Austria’s spy service

And now they’re gunning for its government. pic.twitter.com/vo5xHSvPpW

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) May 22, 2024

The intention of several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism.

80% of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the terrible massacre of October 7.

This evil cannot be given a state.

This would be a terrorist state. It will try to…

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 22, 2024

Picturing the swift and overlooked end to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict  British Journal of Photography

Iran’s supreme leader to expand ties with Armenia  Social News XYZ

Iran’s supreme leader to expand ties with Armenia  Lokmat Times

By Camille Elemia

Manila’s row with Beijing has worsened in recent weeks, as China insists that the Philippines has violated their alleged secret deals and concessions on the South China Sea, but has not shown any evidence to back its claim.

For its part, the Philippines has consistently denied the existence of such deals or concessions, with some observers saying China’s assertion is part of its divide-and-conquer strategy, and other analysts noting that Beijing has a record of secret agreements that breach global regulations.

The recent controversy between the Philippines and China centers around an alleged secret recording Beijing’s embassy in Manila made of a phone conversation, and released what they said was its transcript to some media organizations.

The call, they said, was between a senior Filipino military official and a Chinese diplomat, during which Manila reportedly agreed on a new model for arranging notifications of resupply missions to Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal.

Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos, the senior Philippine military official in question, said Wednesday that he did have such a conversation with a Chinese diplomat but had not consented to its being recorded.

“I did not enter into any secret deals that will compromise the interests of our country. …I have not compromised the country’s territorial integrity,” he said at a hearing in the Senate on Wednesday.

“I have not given up our sovereign rights and entitlement. I am a soldier for the Filipino.  I remain a loyal servant of the republic.”

Carlos had been replaced and put on forced leave at the general military headquarters after the controversy broke. The Philippine military did not explain why, only saying that his reassignment was not a punishment.

‘China has relied on such deals’

This development may not help ease Beijing-Manila tensions.

On Wednesday, China reiterated its claim that it had “solid evidence” these deals with the Philippines existed but did not say why it has not produced this so-called proof.

“Whether it’s [a] ‘gentlemen’s agreement,’ or … internal understandings, or the ‘new model’ reached between China and the Philippines on properly managing the situation in the South China Sea, they all have clear timelines and are supported by solid evidence,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday. 

“No one can deny their existence,” he insisted.

And China has relied on such deals which have worked in its favor in the past, analysts pointed out. 

“China is quite known for its preference for secretive deals that do not embody legitimate rules and norms of international relations,” Don McLain Gill, a Manila-based geopolitical analyst, told BenarNews on Monday.

He cited two examples: the 1963 secret territorial pact between Pakistan and China and the alleged secret deal between China and Cambodia that allowed the Chinese Navy to have an extended and exclusive access to Phnom Penh’s naval base.

Both China and Cambodia denied the secret agreements, of course, but Western officials and groups believed otherwise.

“Such deals favor China because while they are clouded in ambiguity, they still serve the strategic purpose of Beijing. However, such deals often put the other country in the hot seat,” said Gill, who’s also a lecturer at the De La Salle University.

‘Divide and conquer’

Antonio Carpio, a Philippine South China Sea expert, has another explanation he believes is behind the controversy.

Beijing’s claims about alleged internal agreements with Manila are meant to create divisions among Philippine officials, said Carpio, who is also a former Supreme Court justice.

The Philippine Coast Guard escorts Filipino fishing boats joining a convoy to Scarborough Shoal, May 15, 2024. [Jojo Riñoza/BenarNews]

“China will talk to the lower echelons and they’ll say, ‘These officials agreed with us,’ ” he told BenarNews in May, explaining Beijing’s alleged tactic.

“That is not the way [to do things]. That is very undiplomatic. You must go through the proper channels,” Carpio told BenarNews in an interview in early May.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-China policy during his six-year tenure (2016-2022) had allowed, among other things, unofficial talks, verbal agreements and deals without official documents as proof, Carpio said. And Beijing may have thought it could continue that policy, he said. 

‘Duterte’s legacy’

Rommel Jude Ong, a retired Philippine Navy official, agreed with Carpio.

“We are dealing with the legacy of Duterte’s foreign policy posture,” Ong told BenarNews.

“The Chinese Communist Party may be using informal concessions made by the previous administration as leverage and to compel the [current] government to conform to these practices.” 

One example is from 2021 when, according to China, it entered into a deal with the Duterte administration on the rusty ship Manila uses as its base on Second Thomas Shoal.

China says Manila agreed not to repair or build structures on the ship and in return, provided Beijing’s non-interference when the Philippines sends troops and supplies to the military outpost.

The former Philippines president first denied then admitted entering into a verbal agreement with Beijing on this issue.

One security analyst said that governments sometimes enter into behind-the-scenes deals to help settle disputes without pressure from their domestic audiences.

“Governments … avoid making the impression of compromising their countries’ positions in disputed spaces by entering into such agreements,” Lucio Pitlo III, an analyst with the Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, told BenarNews.

“But exposing such deals may put Beijing in a difficult spot at home and may force them to take a more hardline and uncompromising stance so as not to appear weak in their domestic public.”

Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

By Rajnish Singh

(EurActiv) — UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today Wednesday (22 May), that he will go to the polls on 4 July, after 14 years of his party The Conservative and Unionist Party (ECR) being in government.

In a special press announcement made outside 10 Downing Street, Sunak highlighted how he came to office to restore economic stability, he was proud of what he had achieved, and how he will fight for every vote.

Ending months of speculation as to when he would call a new vote, Sunak, stood outside his Downing Street office in pouring rain and announced he was calling the election earlier than expected, a risky strategy, with his party far behind Labour (S&D), the main opposition party in the opinion polls.

Almost shouting to be heard above the song ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ – a dance anthem associated with the Labour Party which was being played by protesters just outside the gates to Downing Street – Sunak listed what he said were his achievements in government, not only as prime minister but also as a former finance minister.

“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” he said, describing that choice as one between stability with him and the unknown with Labour leader Keir Starmer.

“Over the next few weeks, I will fight for every vote, I will earn your trust and I will prove to you that only a Conservative government led by me will not put our hard earned economic stability at risk.”

In an attack on Labour, he said that Starmer, conversely, always took the “easy way out” and had no plan. “As a result, the future can only be uncertain with them,” he said.

Sunak heads into the election not only far behind the Labour Party in the polls but also somewhat isolated from some in his party, increasingly dependent on a small team of advisers to steer him through what is set to be an ugly campaign.

But he seems to have decided with some economic gains, such as inflation falling and the economy growing at its fastest pace in almost three years, now was the time to take a risk and present his agenda for a new term formally to voters.

The former investment banker and finance minister took office less than two years ago, and since then has struggled to define what he stands for, becoming increasingly frustrated that what he sees as his successes have failed to be appreciated.

Both parties have all but kicked off campaigning for an election, with the attack lines on the economy and on defence already firmly drawn.

Sunak and his government accuse Labour of being poised to increase taxes if in government and that the party would not be a safe pair of hands for Britain in an increasingly dangerous world as it lacks a plan, charges the opposition denies.

Labour accuses the government of 14 years of economic mismanagement, leaving people worse off, with a series of chaotic administrations that have failed to give the stability businesses have craved to spur economic growth.

If Labour wins the election, Britain, once known for its political stability, will have had six prime ministers in eight years for the first time since the 1830s.

Labour said before the announcement it was more than ready for an election.

“We are fully ready to go whenever the prime minister calls an election. We have a fully organised and operational campaign ready to go and we think the country is crying out for a general election,” Labour leader Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters.

Starmer kicked off his party’s election campaign last week by pledging to “rebuild Britain”, setting out the first steps he said Labour would take if it forms the next government.

Labour is running about 20 percentage points ahead of Sunak’s Conservatives in opinion polls but some party officials are concerned their advantage is not as solid as it appears, fearing many voters remain undecided.

Sunak might be aiming to capitalise on that uncertainty and also to wrongfoot Labour, which has still to complete the selection of all its parliamentary candidates, a party veteran said.

Sunak will also hope that some economic gains and the first flights in his centrepiece immigration plan of sending illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda might also boost his party’s fortunes. The earliest possible date for those flights is June 24, 10 days before the election.

While some Conservatives welcomed the move to call an election, not all were happy.

“Death wish 2024,” said one Conservative member of Parliament on condition of anonymity.