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Is an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza a mistake? Britain’s defense chief won’t say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

The U.K.’s top defense official repeatedly declined to second President Joe Biden’s comment that an Israeli occupation of Gaza would be “a big mistake.”In an interview Tuesday evening, British Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps was given multiple opportunities to agree with Biden’s remark on “60 Minutes.” The president said that Israel had every right to defend itself and target Hamas during a ground invasion of the enclave. But he warned that Israeli forces shouldn’t stay behind after uprooting the militant group to control Gaza’s 2.3 million people.Shapps didn’t side with Biden’s analysis. “Judgments about how that’s done, as long as it’s within international humanitarian laws, are for Israel” to decide, he said at the U.K. Embassy in Washington, D.C. While he wants to see a proportionate Israeli response, “there’s a job to be done.”Asked again if he sided with Biden’s answer, Shapps said he didn’t want to “start advising [Israel] on precisely what they’re operation shoul...

The smiling face of Chinese interests in the Indo-Pacific: David Cameron

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

LONDON — It is a multi-billion-dollar plan to build a metropolis in the Indo-Pacific which critics fear may one day act as a Chinese military outpost.Now the vast Colombo Port City project has a new champion — former British Prime Minister David Cameron.Cameron has been enlisted to drum up foreign investment in the controversial Sri Lankan project, which is a major part of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative — China’s global infrastructure strategy — and is billed as a Chinese-funded rival to Singapore and Dubai.Cameron flew to the Middle East in late September to speak at two glitzy investment events for Colombo Port City, having visited the waterside site in Sri Lanka in person earlier this year.  His spokesperson said the former PM had had no direct contact with either the Chinese government or the Chinese firm involved. But Cameron’s lobbying for the scheme has drawn severe backlash from critics, who say his activities will aid China in its geopolitical ambiti...

Belgian officials knew all about Brussels terror attack gunman — but were unable to stop him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities were well aware of the gunman who caused terror in Brussels — and yet he was still able to shoot two people dead.The attacker — who killed two Swedish football fans on Monday evening — had been on the authorities’ radar since 2016 over his alleged jihadist ties, Belgian officials admitted Tuesday. The country’s law enforcement agencies were notified several times that the man was potentially dangerous. He was also living in the country illegally and should have been kicked out following the denial of his request for asylum in 2020.Instead, he went on the rampage, managing a night on the run before being shot dead by police on Tuesday morning.The gunman lived “below the waterline” only to emerge from his hideout to strike in a “cowardly” fashion late Monday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Tuesday afternoon after a meeting of the country’s National Security Council. The story of the Tunisian-born gunman reveals the shortc...

Hamas says it’s closely coordinating war’s next moves with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

BEIRUT — Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah are closely coordinating their next steps in fighting against Israel, a senior Hamas representative in Lebanon told POLITICO on Tuesday, just hours after Tehran warned of “preemptive action” against Israel.Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Beirut, insisted Gaza-based Hamas had not given its ally Hezbollah any advance notice of its attacks against Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people. Despite this, however, he described a continual cooperation between the two groups, stressing Hezbollah was now “geared for a major war” against Israel in the north, while Hamas would burst Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “dream” of driving it out of Gaza.The remarks will heighten fears the conflict in the Middle East could be about to spill onto two fronts and engulf Lebanon, particularly if Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza, where its bombardments ...

If this is Israel’s 9/11, it must not make same mistakes the US did

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

Cornelius Adebahr is a nonresident fellow at Carnegie Europe.Before the Israeli army has even begun its expected ground operation into Gaza to wipe out Hamas in the wake of the militant group’s heinous assaults, the entire Middle East already appears on the brink of catastrophe.Whether scenarios of an all-out regional war come to pass very much depend on Israel’s next steps. And here, the much-used analogy describing the attacks as “Israel’s 9/11” becomes increasingly instructive.One parallel is, of course, the glaring intelligence failure that enabled a group of terrorists to strike a democracy at its heart. Israeli authorities were clearly unprepared, which resulted in a higher number of casualties than at any time since the state’s founding in 1948. This alone makes these recent attacks stand out from the usual “turmoil in the Middle East.”The time for a political reckoning will come later, once the war Hamas began ends with a foreseeable, and foreseeably bloody, victory by Israe...

China’s economic growth slows to 4.9% in third quarter, amid muted demand and deflationary pressures

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s economy slowed in the third quarter, amid muted global demand, deflationary pressures and an ailing property sector.The world’s second-largest economy grew 4.9% year-over-year in the July-September quarter, beating the 4.5% forecast by analysts but slowing from the 6.3% growth in the previous quarter, according to official data.On a quarterly basis, the economy grew by 1.3% in the third quarter, compared to 0.8% growth in the April-to-June quarter.The Chinese government in recent months has unveiled a raft of policy support measures to shore up the economy, including infrastructure spending, cutting interest rates and easing curbs for home-buying in an attempt to revive the property sector.China’s trade data, released earlier this week, showed that exports and imports continued to decline although they contracted at a slower rate than previously.Beijing is aiming for 5% economic growth this year. Analysts estimate that China is likely to reach its goal, alth...

Bombing of Gaza hospital ‘not acceptable,’ Trudeau says amid conflicting claims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

The bombing of a hospital in Gaza was “absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, as federal officials confirmed Canada stands ready in Egypt to help people in the besieged territory get out amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed when a rocket hit a Gaza City hospital where many were sheltering. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while Israel’s military said after Trudeau’s remarks that the strike was a result of a misfire by a group of Palestinian militants. Earlier in the day, Trudeau called the situation “absolutely unacceptable.” Speaking in French, he told reporters that “it’s not legal” to bomb a hospital.“The news coming out of Gaza is horrific,” the prime minister said. “International humanitarian and international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases. There are rules arou...

Well-known leader of a civilian ‘self-defense’ group has been slain in southern Mexico

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Bruno Plácido, a well-known leader of a civilian “self-defense” group, was shot to death Tuesday in southern Mexico, eliminating one of the last true chiefs of the country’s armed vigiliante movements that sprang up a decade ago.Vigilante squads in other parts of southern and western Mexico still call themselves “self-defense” groups, but almost all are now infiltrated or funded by drug cartels. Plácido was slain in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo, said a state official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. No suspects or motive was immediately announced. Chilpancingo has been the scene of turf battles among warring drug gangs.Plácido rose to prominence in violence-plagued Guerrero in 2013 when he organized a rag-tag army of farmers to capture suspected gang members. His group held about 50 suspects for weeks in improvised jails, before handing them over to civilian prosecutors. He organized hundreds of villagers armed with old hunting rifle...

Biden will stress humanitarian aid, avoiding deeper conflict in Israel but is scrapping Jordan stop

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s efforts to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas faced major setbacks even before he departed for the Middle East on Tuesday, as Jordan called off the president’s planned summit with Arab leaders after a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds. The White House confirmed while Biden was preparing for takeoff from Washington that he now only plans to visit Israel. The Amman summit was scrapped after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas withdrew in protest of the explosion, which the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza blamed on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said it had no involvement and pinned the blame on a misfired Palestinian rocket.“This war and this aggression are pushing the region to the brink,” Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, told al-Mamlaka TV, a state-run network. He said Jordan would only host the summit when all participants agreed on its purpose, which would be to “stop ...

Malaysia says landslide that killed 31 people last year was caused by heavy rain, not human activity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A landslide that killed 31 people at an unlicensed campground last year was caused by persistent heavy rainfall, not human activity, a Malaysian government investigation concluded.Ninety-two people were sleeping at a campsite on an organic farm when soil and debris crashed down from a road about 30 meters (100 feet) above and covered about 1 hectare (3 acres) of the site in Batang Kali in central Selangor state. Most of the campers were families enjoying a year-end vacation, and 11 of the 31 dead were children. Rescuers found the bodies of a mother and her toddler daughter locked in an embrace, and a man buried under the landslide was uncovered still clutching his dog. Rain had fallen for five straight days before the Dec. 16 landslide, amounting to 118.6 millimeters (4.67 inches), Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in a statement late Monday. The cumulative rainfall for the preceding 30 days was 444.8 millimeters (17.5 inches), he said.“This...