Category: FOREIGN

Foreign Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program.

  • China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    Beijing (AFP) – Beijing warned on Wednesday that a proposed ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.

    The US House of Representatives is set to vote later Wednesday on a bill that would force the app to cut ties with its Chinese owner or get banned in the United States.

    The legislation is the biggest threat yet to the video-sharing app, which has surged to huge popularity across the world while raising fears among governments and security officials over its Chinese ownership and potential subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing.

    Ahead of the vote, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the proposed ban.

    “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” he said.

    “This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he added.

    “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang said.

    The vote is likely to occur at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) and is expected to pass overwhelmingly in a rare moment of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington.

    The fate of the bill is uncertain in the Senate, where key figures are against making such a drastic move against an hugely popular app that has 170 million US users.

    President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” into law if it comes to his desk, the White House has said.

    TikTok staunchly denies any ties to the Chinese government and has restructured the company so the data of US users stays in the country, the company says.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, trying to shore up support to stop the bill.

    “This latest legislation being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious Constitutional concerns,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president for public policy, in a letter to the bill’s co-sponsors seen by AFP.

  • Has Kate left Prince William? Rumours take spotlight post edited photo controversy

    Has Kate left Prince William? Rumours take spotlight post edited photo controversy

    Twitter is having a riot with the recent controversy of Kate Middleton’s recent photo released by the Daily Mail.

    It all started with Kate Middleton’s abdominal surgery after which she was not seen in the public eye. In the absence of more details, speculation grew and to put it to rest, the royal couple’s official X handle released a picture of the princess with her children.

    Major news agencies like AP, AFP, and Reuters pulled the image from their official sources because it was manipulated.

    A day later, an official apology was released through the same account in Kate Middleton’s name, apologizing for “any confusion” caused by the edited family picture. Hours after that, Daily Mail published a picture of Kate leaving Windsor Castle alongside her husband Prince William on March 11.

    The photos, published by the Daily Mail, showed the couple sitting next to each other in the backseat of a car as Kate looked out of her window. The prince was heading to the Commonwealth Day services while his wife, Kate, the princess of Wales, was heading to a ‘private’ appointment, the publication said.

    However, netizens on social media are coming up with diferent theories and rumors with the most prominent being the one that Kate has actually left the castle for good because her husband, Prince William is cheating on her. The rumored girlfriend of Princess William is Lady Rose Hanbury, 39, a former model and currently Marchioness of Cholmondeley, wife of David Rocksavage, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley and mother of three.

    In a detailed feature, The Independent shared that Rose is a close friend of Kate Middleton and upon her insistence, Kate attended a music festival at her husband’s estate, Houghtan Hall. The festival was a disco music event in which Kate was labelled Duchess of Disco. After making headlines, Lady Rose was interviewed by various publications including The English Home.

    Known for her elite fashion sense, Lady Rose was said to be one of the best-dressed at Kate and William’s wedding.

    The same was suggested by British journalist and author Omid Scobie, considered very close to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He released a new book titled ‘Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival’ in which he claimed that Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton distanced themselves from former friend Rose Hanbury since the rumours of an affair between her and the prince surfaced in 2019, as reported by Hindustan Times.

    Lady Rose was mentioned in several posts on X as social media was busy dissecting Kate’s photoshopped image with her three children.

    A user posted a thread about how the British publications are not protecting Kate but the prince himself because he has never been held accountable for anything in his life.

    Another pointed out how the image released by Daily Mail also seems manipulated because the colour of the wall behind them is not matching even in the same image.

    With a tinge of dark humour, a user posted a video of a man digging something with the caption, “William frantically digging Kate back up cause the photoshopped photo didn’t pass the sniff test”.

    A Twitter user posted, “what’s going with #KateMidelton face- did she have surgery of abdominals, or plastic surgery of face to look better?”
    People have been posting clips from the past where the two have been distanced, implying that there was trouble in paradise.

    Internet has been churning out memes about how first it was said that Prince clicked the photo with children and when the media protested, he put all the blame on Kate.

  • Kate and William spotted leaving Windsor Castle after apologising for photo manipulation

    Kate and William spotted leaving Windsor Castle after apologising for photo manipulation

    Hours after Kate Middleton apologized for “any confusion” caused by an edited family picture, she was photographed leaving Windsor Castle alongside husband Prince William on March 11.

    The photos, published by the Daily Mail, showed the couple sitting next to each other in the backseat of a car as Kate—who is reportedly recovering from abdominal surgery—looked out of her window. The prince was heading to the Commonwealth Day services while his wife, Kate, the princess of Wales, was heading to a ‘private’ appointment, the publication said.

    Earlier, Kate issued an apology over an altered official photo that saw news agencies, including AP and AFP pull the image from their systems.

    “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused,” Kate wrote in a statement.

    Background

    A recently released image of Kate Middleton, issued by Kensington Palace to put all rumors about her health to rest, has ended up creating new controversies.

    Various news agencies have issued notices not to use the image of Kate and her three children, including the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, Getty Images, and Agence France-Presse (AFP). All three on Sunday night withdrew it and told media outlets to “kill” the photo from their systems and archives because they believe that it has been manipulated.

    The AP said the photo had been withdrawn because upon “closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image” and the photo showed an “inconsistency in the alignment” of the left hand of Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte.

  • S. Korea starts procedures to suspend licences of 4,900 striking doctors

    S. Korea starts procedures to suspend licences of 4,900 striking doctors

    South Korea said Monday it had started procedures to suspend the medical licenses of 4,900 junior doctors who have resigned and stopped working to protest government medical training reforms, causing health care chaos.

    The walkout, which started February 20, is over government plans to sharply increase the number of doctors, which it says is essential to combat shortages and South Korea’s rapidly aging population, while the medics argue it will erode service quality.

    Nearly 12,000 junior doctors — 93 percent of the trainee workforce — were not in their hospitals at the last count, despite government back to work orders and threats of legal action, forcing Seoul to mobilize military medics and millions of dollars in state reserves to help.

    The Health Ministry on Monday said it had sent administrative notifications — the first step to suspending the doctors’ medical licenses — to thousands of trainee doctors after they defied specific orders telling them to return to their hospitals.

    “As of March 8 (notifications) have been sent to more than 4,900 trainee doctors,” Chun Byung-wang, director of the health and medical policy division at the health ministry, told reporters.

    The government has previously warned striking doctors they face a three month suspension of their licenses, a punishment which, it says, will delay by at least a year their ability to qualify as specialists.

    Chun urged the striking medics to return to their patients.

    “The government will take into account the circumstance and protect trainee doctors if they return to work before the administrative measure is complete,” he said, indicating doctors who come back to work now could avoid the punishment.

    “The government will not give up dialogue. The door for dialogue is always open … The government will respect and listen to opinions of the medical community as a companion for the medical reforms,” he added.

    The government last week announced new measures to improve pay and conditions for trainee medics, plus a review of the continuous 36-hour work period, which is a major gripe of junior doctors.

    The strikes have led to surgery cancelations, long wait times and delayed treatments at major hospitals.

    Seoul has mobilized military doctors and earmarked millions of dollars of state reserves to ease service shortfalls, but has denied that there is a full-blown health care crisis.

    Military doctors will start working in civilian hospitals from Wednesday this week, Chun said.

    Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking, and the health ministry has asked police to investigate people connected to the work stoppage.

    The government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from next year to address what it calls one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.

    Doctors say they fear the reform will erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.

  • On Women’s Day, the world did not forget Palestinian women

    On Women’s Day, the world did not forget Palestinian women

    Palestinian women took center-stage in internet discourse surrounding Women’s Day on Friday with artwork and rich tributes.

    Al-Jazeera wrote about the five most prominent women from Gaza. From doctors to activists, these are some of the women showing bravery amid Israel’s war on Gaza. These women include Bisan the journalist, Dr. Amira Al-Assouli who saved the life of a child from Israeli snipers by risking her own life, Nadina Abdullatif the child activist from Gaza, Deema Alswiti who caught the world’s attention after posting about her life in Gaza and Sara Alsaqqa, the first woman surgeon in Gaza who safely brought a child in the world while stuck in a room during Israeli bombing.

    Instagram digital art-related page Yael Jamina Illustration posted a beautiful art piece in “honour of the heroic women and girls of Palestine”.

    Palestinian-Greek athlete Samia Kallidis posted a heartfelt women’s day message for the women of Gaza and called out the world for the blatant hypocrisy.

    APAN, a Pro-Palestine Account on X, posted detailed profiles of Palestinian activists featuring Hind Khoudary, Ahed Tamimi, and Muna el’Kurd.

    Communist Pastors shared a women’s day poster with the caption, “The Palestinian woman: the guardian of the dream and the shield of the revolution.”

    A netizen shared a poster by award-winning artist Marc Rudin which was published by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1980.

    Along with these beautiful art pieces, women all around the world took to roads for peaceful marches in commemoration of Women’s Day and raised slogans in solidarity with the oppressed women of Gaza.

  • Indian policeman beats Muslim men offering jummah on Delhi roadside

    Indian policeman beats Muslim men offering jummah on Delhi roadside

    A video of an Indian cop brutally beating Muslim men offering jummah prayers on the roadside in Delhi has gone viral. The video shows the policeman kicking and hitting Muslims who were kneeling down for sajdah (prostration).

    The incident took place in Delhi’s Inderlok area where a large number of Muslims gathered at a mosque on Friday, leading to several men praying on the road as the crowd overflowed the premises.

    Police officials arrived at the spot mid-prayers and started kicking and punching the Muslims. They can be heard telling the worshippers to vacate the place.
    The video shows one of them kicking and hitting the Muslims who were kneeling down for prayers. However, a crowd surrounded the cop and objected to his attitude, getting into a verbal brawl.

    Sharing the video of the incident, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Imran Pratapgarhi said, “What is this hatred that is filled in the heart of this soldier? Delhi Police is requested to file a case against this official under appropriate sections and terminate his service.”

    In an interview with Hindustan Times, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) MK Meena said that an inquiry into the matter has been initiated. The official has been suspended with immediate effect and disciplinary action will also be taken, the DCP added.

  • India confirms citizen fighting with Russian army dead

    India confirms citizen fighting with Russian army dead

    India’s embassy in Moscow has confirmed the death of a citizen recruited by the Russian army, days after a relative said he had been sent to fight in Ukraine.

    Two years after Russia’s invasion began, tens of thousands of its soldiers have been killed in Ukraine and Moscow is on a global quest for more combatants. The foreign ministry in New Delhi said last month that it was working to secure discharges for around 20 Indian nationals “stuck” in the Russian army.

    The embassy did not state the circumstances behind Mohammed Asfan’s death but said it was in touch with his family and Russian authorities. “Mission will make efforts to send his mortal remains to India,” the embassy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

    Asfan’s brother Mohammed Imran said in February that his sibling had been missing for nearly two months. Asfan had last called from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to say that he had been deployed to the frontlines, Imran had said.

    He said that another Indian soldier who managed to escape told his family that 30-year-old Asfan had been wounded by a bullet. Asfan is the first death confirmed by Indian authorities among its citizens serving with the Russian army and the second confirmed overall.

    A 23-year-old man from Gujarat state was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike while working as a “security helper”, local media reported last month, citing relatives and another Indian soldier at the frontlines.

    Several Indian recruits said last month that they were lured into joining up by promises of high salaries and a Russian passport before being shipped to the frontlines.

    The soldiers said they had been promised non-combatant roles but were trained to use Kalashnikov assault rifles and other weapons before being sent to Ukraine.

  • Jeff Bezos takes back richest person spot after dethroning Elon Musk

    Jeff Bezos takes back richest person spot after dethroning Elon Musk

    LOS ANGELES: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took back his spot as the world’s richest man on Monday, dethroning Elon Musk on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bezos’ net worth stands at $200 billion, according to the tracker, surpassing the Tesla chief’s $198 billion.

    Musk, who also heads X (formerly Twitter) and SpaceX, has seen his riches fall by more than $30 billion as Tesla’s share price has dropped 25% in recent months.

    Adding to Musk’s woes, a court in January approved the annulment of his enormous Tesla compensation agreement, worth $55.8 billion and originally struck in 2018.

    Bezos, who no longer runs Amazon, has meanwhile benefited from the e-commerce giant’s rising stock price. Even after recently selling off $8.5 billion in stocks he remains the company’s largest shareholder.

    The French CEO of the luxury group LVMH, Bernard Arnault, remains in third place in the rankings of the world’s richest people, worth $197 billion.

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  • European Conservatives want asylum-seekers transferred to third countries

    European Conservatives want asylum-seekers transferred to third countries

    The main conservative group in the European Union parliament will call for asylum-seekers to be moved to “safe third countries” to assess their claims in its  manifesto to be approved Wednesday for elections in June.

    The programme of the European People’s Party — which will formally back European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as its candidate for a second term — picks up controversial proposals by several conservative parties across Europe.

    Britain, no longer an EU member, has notably embarked on plans to send undocumented migrants to Rwanda. Italy has a deal with Albania to set up centres to process migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.

    Asylum applications in EU countries surged to over one million last year, a seven-year high, with Syrians and Afghans remaining at the top of the list, as the EU works through an overhaul of its rules on asylum-seekers.

    Rules approved in December aim to share hosting responsibilities across the 27-country bloc and to speed up deportations of irregular migrants deemed ineligible to stay.

    In its manifesto, which is expected to be adopted at a congress in Bucharest, the EPP called for a “fundamental change in European asylum law”.

    “We want to implement the concept of safe third countries,” the manifesto reads.

    Under the proposal, those applying for asylum in the EU could be transferred to a third country, and if their claim is deemed valid will receive protection there.

    “A comprehensive contractual agreement will be established with the safe third country,” the manifesto details.

    Some of them could be admitted into the EU “through annual humanitarian quotas of vulnerable individuals,” allowing “us to address both security and integration requirements in the selection process”, it adds.

    Germany’s opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) — von der Leyen’s party — in its draft manifesto presented in December has also proposed sending asylum seekers to third countries.

    The move aims to bring down the numbers of migrants arriving in the EU, CDU official Jens Spahn told German media then.

    He mentioned Africa’s Rwanda and Ghana and Europe’s Georgia and Moldova as possible third countries.

    Britain has started negotiations with Rwanda to send migrants to Rwanda but there have been court objections.

    The scheme has been widely criticised as undercutting basic rights principles, with EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson also expressing some reservations.

    In a different case, Italy signed a controversial deal with Albania — which is not part of the European Union — in November under which asylum seekers rescued at sea would be held in two migrant centres in Albania.

    The EPP meets Wednesday and Thursday in Bucharest and is to choose von der Leyen as their lead candidate for European Commission president.

    The EU elections are scheduled to take place from June 6-9.

  • Diners in India spit blood after being served ‘dry ice’

    Diners in India spit blood after being served ‘dry ice’

    Diners at Gurugram City, India, were allegedly served ‘dry ice’ as mouth freshener by a hotel manager leading them to throw up blood.

    The unfortunate incident happened on Saturday when five people started vomiting, while also bleeding from the mouth, after they consumed the sugar and spice mix, traditionally served after a meal, reports BBC. The police arrested the manager of the hotel.

    As per the initial investigation, it was revealed that the packet contained dry ice, a solid form of carbon dioxide used as a cooling agent (especially in refrigerators for the preservation of food).

    The customers were hospitalized after the incident.

    However, the police in Gurugram City, where the restaurant is located, arrested its manager on charges of poisoning “with the intent to cause hurt or harm” on Tuesday.

    A search is underway for the owner of the food joint, who is currently absconding.

    In their complaint, the customers have also accused the restaurant staff of refusing to help them.

    A doctor later examined the contents of the packet of mouth freshener and confirmed it contained dry ice.
    The case is under investigation and the police have said they were conducting a forensic analysis of the contents of the mouth freshener.