Xi Jinping traveled to Europe
Xi Jinping, leader of China, arrived in France yesterday on his first trip to Europe in five years. He will also visit Serbia and Hungary.
All three countries, to varying degrees, are embracing China’s push for a new global order. Xi appears determined to seize opportunities to loosen the continent’s ties with the United States and forge a world free of its dominance. The visit is likely to be seen as a not-so-subtle effort by Xi to divide Western allies.
Shortly after arriving in Paris, he praised France, whose president, Emmanuel Macron, has often made the Gaullist argument that Europe “should never be a vassal of the United States.”
The chemistry between Xi and Macron – who visited China just over a year ago and echoed the Chinese lexicon of a “multipolar” world, free of “blocs” – appears to reside in a shared vision that the postwar order must be replaced. Xi wants to court leaders who are frustrated by American dominance, see China as a counterweight and are eager to strengthen economic ties.
Analysis: “Macron is trying to create a third way in the current global chaos,” said a French expert on relations with China.
Whats Next: Tomorrow Xi heads to Serbia. His arrival coincides with the 25th anniversary of the deadly NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. That mistaken attack, for which the White House apologized, killed three Chinese journalists and sparked protests around the US embassy in Beijing.
Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera, which has long had a tense relationship with Israel, of harming its national security and inciting violence against its soldiers. Israeli officials did not immediately provide examples of content that Israel believed posed a threat.
In a statement in Arabic, Al Jazeera called the decision a “criminal act” and added that “Israel’s suppression of the free press to cover up its crimes has not deterred us from doing our duty.” News organizations denounced the closure, which had been debated in Israel for weeks, as a blow to press freedom.
Context: Al Jazeera, a major news source in the Arab world, has reported extensively from Gaza and highlighted the suffering of the war.
Other updates:
Arrests in Canada for the murder of a Sikh leader
Canadian police said on Friday that three Indian men had been arrested and charged with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist who was shot dead in Canada last June.
The arrests did little to demystify the assassination, which sparked a diplomatic clash and led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s blunt accusation that India had orchestrated the assassination. Canadian police did not present evidence to support his claim, but said an investigation into India’s role in Nijjar’s death is ongoing.
Bets: The allegation, if proven, could suggest that India’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, is now expanding its playbook for working with criminals to carry out operations in Western countries, analysts said.
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This year, Taiwan’s major pilgrimages to Mazu, the sea goddess, attracted record numbers of participants. Many are young people who want to keep old traditions alive.
“They are proud of their culture. “They are proud to be Taiwanese,” Chris Buckley, a Times reporter based in Taipei, explained in a video. “And what we found is that this pilgrimage that might begin as a kind of social event or cultural tourism can actually take on a deeper meaning for quite a number of people.”
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Rebel Fighters Rely on Cheap Drones
Cheap, haphazardly assembled drones are key to the rebel fight in Myanmar. Resistance forces are getting creative with instructions sourced online, parts ordered from China, and cables repurposed from drones used for agriculture.
All this while your electricity goes out.
Drones have changed the course of the fight against the military junta, which seized power in a coup in 2021. They have helped rebels capture military posts simply by stalking and scaring soldiers into fleeing, and have allowed extensive offensives in territory controlled by the junta, targeting police stations and bases.
And Myanmar’s fighters are not alone: Cheap consumer drones are changing conflicts from Ukraine and Yemen to Sudan and Gaza. The world’s outgunned forces often learn from each other, teaching each other how to hack the default software of commercial drones that could reveal their location, or sharing 3D printing blueprints.