politicodiary

During the turmoil in Afghanistan, China was one of the few countries to support Taliban rule. Now, even China is getting doubtful about the support offered. Finally, China has realised their mistake of supporting Afghanistan and now they are losing their confidence on their decision. Taliban is known for their support of terrorism and laws to suppress women in the country. Just four months ago, in August 2021, China has supported the Afghanistan and now they seem to lose confidence in the Taliban due to rampant terrorist activities and ill treatment to women. As per a report, they have made clear about their views on the current condition in Afghanistan. The prevalent terrorist condition in Afghanistan and wide presence of terrorist groups ISIS and Al-Qaeda, makes China aware of their mistake on the decision to support Taliban in Afghanistan. Now, China is asking for a collaborative approach to fight terrorism. As per a comment by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao, th...

Policeman in Italy are checking regularly the green health pass of passengers of public transport. They have suspended profile of 17 online sellers, offering fake COVID certificates. As per a statement from the Italy’s finance Police, the action for suspension of 17 public and private messaging channels has happened due to sale of illegal Covid-19 vaccine certificates. Fake Covid Pass is offered in paper format or digital medium to the customers. As of now, nine private profiles and eight public have been caught by Police. These certificates are sold ranging from €100 to €500. Discount is also available for purchases made in bulk or ‘family package’ deal. As per the investigating agencies, payments were also done by cryptocurrencies, in few cases. The online sellers make an assurance of the pass being “fully reliable” with a confirmation of “QR” code to pass the checks by competent authorities, also post sales service, in case of any problems later. While, at one end there has be...

Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland has vetoed the bill regarding the  US company Discovery to give up its controlling share in Polish TV network TVN.  The bill passed in parliament has invited a lot of controversy due to the pressure  from the US. Andrzej Duda shared that he decided to veto against the bill as this will  spoil the reputation of Poland as a place to do business and also it is unpopular  amongst the local people. Also, he said that it is important for Poland to be seen as  an honourable partner with its allies. The US government has raised pressure on  Andrzej Duda over this bill. This bill which was passed by the lower house of parliament, restricts non-European  companies from owning more than a 49 percent stake in television or radio  broadcasters in Poland. The immediate and direct impact of this bill would be on  Discovery Inc., as this would force the US owner of Poland’s largest private  television network, ...

The US government has terminated the continuity for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The government of Ethiopia has shown deep regret on this decision of the US government. In a statement by the ministry, they shared "We strongly encourage the U.S government to reconsider its decision." The statement from Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, also says that “the Ethiopian Government has continued to take measures aimed at restoring peace and stability and consolidating the political and economic reforms over the past three years. They also mentioned about the respect of having a long-standing cordial relationship that has existed between our two countries and good faith maintained with the involved agencies within the US administration to restore our mutually beneficial partnership. The decision to remove Ethiopia from AGAO is expected to further slowdown the cause of human rights in Eth...

The comments made by Pakistan Prime Minister on defending the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan has invited a wave of criticism from across the world. He commented that world cannot force the Taliban to take steps on women’s rights that are against the Pashtun culture. These comments came at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Islamabad. His comment has brought in angry comments from many Afghan women activists in particular who panned Khan for his “immaturity” and “boorish attempt to defend the Taliban”. In a letter on behalf of the Afghan women’s to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation says that the Pakistan Prime Ministers’ comments has reconfirmed the Taliban mindset and justify the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s education and employment. The letter to OIC reads “We specifically would like to draw your attention to the call of the Afghan women coalition that the statement made by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the Afghan traditions regarding ...

A penalty of one million euros has been imposed on European Missile Maker MBDA for offset delays in the Rafale aircraft deal. The penalty has been imposed on European missile maker for delays in fulfilling its commitments in the deal signed between India and France to procure 36 aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore. As per the sources, the main cause for imposing and collection of the penalty has been initiated to tighten screws on defaulting armament majors. MBDA is a weapon’s package supplier for the Rafale jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation in the inter-governmental agreement inked by India in September 2016. On one hand, India has signed the inter-governmental agreement with France and supply protocols for the fighters and weapons; and on the other, a major offsets contract with Dassault and a smaller one with MBDA. As agreed, half of the contract value (around Rs 30,000 crore) has to be ploughed back to India as offsets or re-investments, spread over seven years from the date...

A huge crack had got developed in Kenya’s rift valley, which could split Africa in two parts. The suddenly developed natural phenomena has been intriguing scientists and the population of Kenya. A 65-meter-wide and 50 feet deep opening has developed in earth spanning several kilometres long. This terrifying natural phenomenon happened after torrential rainfall and earth tremors. The giant crack has separated the highway in two parts creating fear amongst the locals in west of Nairobi, Kenya. Scholars claim that this incident is the beginning of the division of Africa into two separate continents. Ben Andrews, a geologist with the Smithsonian said “We are seeing a crack that in all likelihood formed over many thousands of years or hundreds of thousands of years." He further added that though the giant crack is exposed by a rainstorm, whereas the true cause goes deeper and the gap was created by the movement of the Earth's tecto...

Friendships are becoming thick on the wrong sides- Russia and China, who are now calling each other strong friends in arms. This becomes more apparent as both leaders of the powerful nations engaged in a long video call that lasted 1hour and 30 minutes, local media has reported. Russia is looking for security guarantees from the West and China is backing it in its attempts to do so. In their virtual summit, they have vowed to stand up against the West. So, the two very powerful nations of the world are ganging up against the rest of the world. One of their key points of discussion was the escalating war like situation between Russia and Ukraine and the former’s desire to claim ownership of the latter. Russia wants the United States and NATO to guarantee the military alliance will not expand further eastward or deploy weapons systems in Ukraine and other countries on Russia's border. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have interacted on many occasions in the last two years discussing key...

The story doesn’t get any easy for the Palestinians living in and around Israel or in Lebanon. Their access to jobs remains limited. It seems syndicated individuals can restrict their right to work. Last week, the Lebanese government granted limited access to Palestinians to seek jobs in their economy. But sadly, but most white-collar jobs remain barred without a Parliament vote. The decree, published on the Labour Ministry’s website, says Palestinians born in Lebanon, as well as non-Lebanese with a Lebanese mother or married to a Lebanese citizen, are now allowed to work in professions managed by Lebanese orders and syndicates. According to Abdelnasser El Ayi, project manager at the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, an inter-ministerial body headed by the prime minister's office, “Laws governing jobs organised by the order, can only be changed by lawmakers in Parliament.” These include professions like, engineering, medicine, pharmacy and law. Post the Arab-Israeli war in ...

Foreign leaders from G7 nations have met today to defuse the tension with Russia. With Russia building its troops on the Ukrainian border, it is creating fear and tension for the neighbouring nations.  Attempts have been made from Britain and US to seek a unified approach to convince Iran  on the acceptance of revival of 2015 nuclear agreement. The Foreign Secretary of  Britain Liz Truss had a meeting with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and  other G7 counterparts on Friday evening before the two days of talks. The meeting as expected had in attendance  remotely connected  ministers and in person attendance by ASEAN countries. The leading democratic powers seek to boost their influence in the Indo-Pacific. Historic location of “The Museum of LiverPool” in the City’s docklands was selected for  the event, a location rich in history and culture, which has been a symbol of British global  reach and economic might. ...

Taiwan is taking on things head on, despite its growing tension with China. With the chip market compromised over pandemic and closures of the production facilities, the US and Taiwan have decided to support each other in semiconductor space. It is worth noting that this partnership comes amid escalating tensions between China and independently governed Taiwan. China has been forcing itself on Taiwanese government and wishes to make it a part of its sovereignty. Currently, Beijing continues to view Taiwan as a breakaway province. China's air force has been  entering  Taiwanese airspace frequently in recent months and staging military exercises near the island, prompting fears of a military conflict. The United States on the other hand has been trying to support Taiwan, a country which has had to fight a lot harder for its trade relations to be taken seriously worldwide, under constant pressure from China. The Technology Trade and Investment Collaboration (TTIC) framewo...

In a final movement, US combat troops will no longer play truce role in Iraq anymore, news reports have confirmed. But even now, there are 2500 troops stationed in Iraq, even after the decision from Washington. According to Iraq’s national security adviser, the US led coalition against ISIS will not shift itself to a training and advisory role. Officially, the troops have finished their combat mission.  Keeping in lines with the Biden administration to reduce military presence and combative support and bring back their own, the decision to terminate the mission was first announced by the President in July of this year, when he hosted the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi. The decision while works in favour of American troops who have been stationed into such war battered regions for months together, it might not be good news for the Iraqi government after all. The latter has been under pressure from powerful pro-Iranian political groups with armed wings that have demanded...

Uzbekistan is in human rights violation and the American senate is putting pressure on the administration for the country to take onus for it. In a letter, this has been stated clearly and the letter has now been made public. Those who have raised their voices include Senator Bob Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey), the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and five other Senate Democrats called on the U.S. administration. All are asking that Uzbekistan's leaders should be pressed on human rights issues during an upcoming dialogue session. The senators are now insisting that the Central Asian nation should conduct sweeping reforms ‘as promised by President Shavkat Mirziyoev’ earlier. This conversation is starting as both nations are slated to meet soon in the year over the first Strategic Partnership Dialogue. Uzbekistan is responsible for curtailing freedom of speech of people and media and lack of progress towards political liberalization. The letter states that 'Despite much-...

After a huge gap, Kremlin has decided to make a visit to India. Indeed, everyone is seeing how the New Delhi-Kremlin bond is becoming stronger. Indian PM Narendra Modi has played his cards well, to keep the powerful on his side. Vladimir Putin is definitely one of those choices. Putin’s visit comes at the strategic time of Russia’s delivery of the S-400 air defense systems, a technology that was to attract secondary sanctions from America. But India knows where to butter its bread and has decided to shake hands with Russia over military partnership for the next decade as well. Let us not forget that Russia is dominated the supply of natural gas to many in the Western world. With India having made a bigul call of going completely green on its fuel consumptions through investments elsewhere, partnership with Russia could make sense in a later stage. Despite India’s increasing closeness to the West, a strong Russia and stronger India-Russia ties are important for India’s vision of a mult...

The Education minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Berhanu Nega has asked to close all the secondary schools for a week. This announcement was made to allow students help in harvesting crop fields left behind by civilians who enlisted in the military. Government officials shared that the fighting has destroyed hundreds of schools and more  than 1.2 million students were out of school due to the ongoing conflict in the north. A six-month state of emergency was announced in November to contain a Tigrayan rebel advancement towards the capital, Addis Ababa. Due to the current situation arising in the north and centre of the country caused by rebel  forces, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has made a call to join the armed forces to defeat the  uprising rebel. Thousands of people have answered his call to join the army. He called on “all patriotic Ethiopians” to join him in frontline combat against forces loyal to  the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Recently P...

  As African countries have repeatedly encountered their economic crises, they have turned to rich nations for help. The only one that has come to their rescue and then played their cards well is China. This is also because China made it easy for the African countries. Nigeria was no exception. The need for help came from IMF and the World Bank but with a lot of conditions like Structural Adjustment Programs , spurred endless controversies and gained eternal infamy. Nigeria also grew dependent on the Western world support as well as lending institutions like these. In 1956, when it discovered oil, its dependency on oil exports also grew. But with that came price fluctuations and then other kinds of dependencies as well. This dangerous dependence on a single commodity for fiscal and monetary stability meant sudden or prolonged drop in oil prices automatically triggered an economic crisis in the country. This made Nigeria a regular client of the IMF and World Bank. And with the...

In a strange discovery, it has been ascertained that the drones employed to set an attack on the Iraqi PM were actually locally made. This has been determined by a top security official. The actual infiltrator has not been pinpointed though. Hours after the attempt on his life, Iraqi Security forces had to actually close the heavily fortified Green Zone as they tightened security measures hours after the assassination attempt on the prime minister in Baghdad. Mustafa Al Kadhimi was attacked by two drones which were apparently home grown according to National Security Adviser Qassem Al Araji . The attack was carried out inside Baghdad's high-security Green Zone. The PM has asked for no assumptions to be made and that thorough investigations should ascertain the origins of the drone attacks that could have been fatal. The attack against Mr. Al Kadhimi came amid rising tensions over the results of the elections on October 10. Preliminary results of that poll saw the Conquest (...

The prime minister of Australia, Scott Morrison has taken the bull by its horns, by challenging Facebook Inc to back the anti-troll defamation law. But there are chanced that Facebook will quit Australia at together. If this happens, then Morrison says that if the social media giant does so, over laws holding it liable for defamation on its platform, it shows that they have no interest in making the online world safe. The global social media companies have threatened to quit Australia early this year in a discussion over laws making them pay media outlets for content appearing on their websites. Australian government wants that global internet companies to share the identity of the people with anonymous accounts, in case there is a charge of defamation on such account by other person. The purpose is to bring the internet companies accountable for the content on their platforms. Failure to provide the required information, it must assume legal liability. The proposal is also to make soc...

  The new variant of Corona virus is now being called Omicron and it is being suspected that it is resistant to the current lot of vaccines doing rounds worldwide. However pharmaceutical companies are now determined to improvise the current vaccine to create a shield of protection against the new fast mutating variant. Named by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the health organization says that classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States. The new variant started its spread from South Africa, due to which UK has already banned travel from four of its countries. The actual risks are still to be ascertained about the new highly infectious fast mutating variant. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants. That mean...

A post Merkel era is going to be a new birth for Germany- growing up from being protected and hand held from running the show on your own, for a change.... Termed as the ‘traffic light coalition’, there is a wave of change to see, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) having agreed to form a new government headed by the SDP’s Olaf Scholz. It is going to be a rough ride- with all three parties having to come to a common ground and footing. While the Greens are hugely focused on the environment, the FDP is looking at pushing for its agenda of a free market orthodoxy, and the SDP is obsessively for redistributive social democracy. Will they find a common ground to work on after a successful 16 years of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) dominating the highest levels of Germany politics? Time will tell! One can also look at the way all three are functioning vis-a-vie the distribution of ministries is concerned. It s...

Polarization has swept Chile in strange ways, leaving it only two strangely different candidates to be selected towards the first-round of presidential election. Chile has seen a lot of change- from complete conservatism to now same sex marriage coming through. Speaking to a journalist who wrote a column over Chile’s crumbling political powers, Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, said, “In Chile, I think you see what is now the established trend in Latin America — the complete crumbling of political parties with any kind of moderate centrist option. It’s being replaced by high levels of political uncertainty and enormous fragmentation.” Between the older José Antonio Kast and the bearded millennial leader Gabriel Boric, the former seems to be winning more brownie points. Kast speaks for an anti-migrant sentiment, and has impressed the police. The culture wars propelling Kast to the presidency in Chile are similar to the themes that took Trump to the White House...

World Health Organisation’s special envoys are now going all out to gather support for a pandemic preparedness treaty. Owing to a fifth wave of high infections and transmission, several countries are still looking at ways of getting back on their feet. It has been two years of combatting the Covid-19 virus.   Maximum deaths are coming through in the low- and middle-income countries. This has been communicated by special envoys appointed by the WHO. The Director-General appointed six Special Envoys on Covid-19 on February 21, 2020. The intend was to provide strategic advice and high-level political advocacy and engagement in different parts of the world.   The Special Envoys will work in close collaboration with WHO Regional Directors and country offices to coordinate the global response to COVID-19. In a specialized report given by the special envoys, it states, “The trends are seen both in nations with adequate doses of vaccine, as well as in those with very tight sup...

China is making good use of Cambodia in every which way. Earlier it was bringing down the US build facilities without notifying or discussing the same with Washington. Then it was constructing Chinese facilities on the same structures. It seems China is expanding its reach and the Cambodian PM had nothing to say but that they had a right to protect their own turf without having to give an explanation to Washington.   Now, it seems, Cambodia is being used as a vaccine storage facility by China too. Strangely, almost all of the vaccines used to date in Cambodia are Chinese (Sinovac and Sinopharm). Political analysts believe there are political, diplomatic and financial reasons behind this decision.Indeed, it isn’t wrong to say that vaccine diplomacy has been aptly given free rein in the kingdom of Cambodia. Washington has had an eye on Cambodia ever since it razed the US facility at its Ream Naval Base. There are reasons that it feels that Prime Minister Hun Sen has sought to posit...

Construction at Ream Naval Base at Cambodia’s Gulf of Thailand coast is in full swing, satellite imagery shows. As a part of a China-backed redevelopment plan, this is China’s strategic move into expanding its military prowess at sea. Over August and September 2021, three new buildings have been constructed, while several areas have been cleared off foliage. A road has also been put under development. Surprisingly, the activity comes amid concern by the United States over China’s growing activity at the base. It is worth noting that a US-built facility was razed in 2019-2020.   While this happened, simultaneously, there were indications of changes at the Ream in 2019 itself. A detailed report by an American media house had revealed this with a fact that indeed China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy had signed a secret deal with Cambodia granting it future access to the base. However, Cambodia refuted the report. In October 2020 it then emerged that a building constru...

The Angolan government is now planning to invest over US$445.5 million (392.3 million euros) to build as many as 21 logistic centers for smooth transport logistics. This will be done by 2038 and will help minimize the challenges of goods transport. Angolan logistics are heavily dependent on roads transport. This has been communicated by the Minister for Transport, Ricardo de Abreu who released a formal tender for the concession, construction, operation and commercial management of the Soyo and Luvo Logistics Platforms in Zaire province. All the platforms will complement each other, concretizing the fact the indeed Angola is taking steps to diversify their economy. “We are doing this by way of stimulating increased production in other sectors and reducing dependence on oil, and it is therefore fundamental to establish an optimized logistics network, integrated by the maritime, land, rail and air sectors,” said Abreu. By 2022, Angola intends to put into operation six logistic platf...

 In a recent incident, Belarus made and statement for an “unscheduled repair” on a branch of the “Friendship pipeline” carrying oil supplies from Russia through their country to a number of EU states, stating that the repairs will take three days. Transneft, the Russian energy giant has said that this is a short-term disruption and the repair work should be completed by weekend. Though the monthly supply volumes should not be affected by this halt in supply. The pipeline connects oil fields in Central Russia to consumers in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Germany. This situation has caused a record-high increase in natural gas prices in Europe. Various factors are aggravating the current situation in Europe, including the unusual cold winter, which demands people to heat their homes for longer than usual. Also, the need for natural gas is higher due to decisions regarding phasing out of coal and a bad year for wind production. The political situation in Europe is also not conduc...

Chilean elections are the talk of the town this year. It will see a huge renewal of the whole Congress- the 155 deputies and 27 of the 50 senators. But the presidential selection is going to be a tough one as the selection looks polarized. The contrasts are stark indeed. There are surprisingly seven competitors. But none exceed the 30 percent of adherence, according to the latest polls. Only 23 percent of voters are still undecided. So electoral participation is going to be big this time and will also become the deciding factor that could tip the balance. The race looks competitive to the top seat at La Moneda. But the competition seems to be stiff only between two contenders right now. On the left, the candidate of the alliance I Approve Dignity, Gabriel Boric is supported by the Broad Front and the Communist Party. He offers a profound agenda of changes, in line with the constituent process. And on the right wing is the leader of the Republican Party, José Antonio Kast. He does n...

  The world’s busiest coal port in Australia, the Newcastle coal port was put to halt by two climate activists, Zianna and Hannah, who strapped themselves atop equipment at the Port of Newcastle and stopped work there late November 16 th night. They represent the climate group, Blockade Australia, which is focused on “strategic direct action,”. They have to be removed before the port resume normal work. They said, “This is the tenth consecutive day of disruption to Newcastle coal port and its supply rail network.” The group shared that, there were 16 similar activities being conducted over the last week or so, some targeting the rail line near the port, the world’s largest for coal exports. In another incident, a group of activists breached the port and ‘hit emergency stop buttons’ on machines before strapping themselves to different pieces of equipment. Later they were brought down and arrested after ‘several hours’ and are now expected to appear in court in the ...

Gaddafi’s son is now contesting for next month’s elections. This is already causing controversy amongst Libyans. The person in focus is Seif-al-Islam Gaddafi. His father was a dictatorial leader who was slain in 2011. This is Libya’s first ever direct presidential poll to start off on December 24. It is a decisive moment after much of UN’s persuasion to come down to developing a democratic setup. Many residents in Libya are against his candidature. They call it unfair, as the man is still wanted by the International Criminal Court, with many rulings against him. He does not really show himself as any who should be taken seriously. He is known for many crimes against humanity. Registration opened for candidatures on November 15 itself. Seif-al- Islam feels he can restore Libya’s unity. He was already sentenced to death by the Libyan court during the time of revolt. But he was pardoned by a rival administration in the east in a decision that was never confirmed by authorities in Tr...

The growing amity seems to be becoming a reason that Hezbollah as a party in Lebanon might be losing their power and relevance. Regional realignment seems to be adding up towards November 29 running up of the election time and the relevance of the Iran backed party seems to be becoming dim. Of the major regional development seems to be factors like alleged actions by Iran’s proxies in Iraq. These include assassination attempt against Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi as well as Hezbollah’s activities in Lebanon. And then angry comments made by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were quickly proven wrong and not gone down well with Lebanese either. Nasrallah has said he was in the loop about recent Saudi-Iranian talks in Iraq. He claimed that they did not mention “Lebanon or Hezbollah, neither with regards to Yemen or other issues”. However, Nasrallah’s claim reflects Hezbollah’s anxiety over deals taking place behind its back. So what are the deals happening behind its back? For o...