President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko attends the CSTO Collective Security Council meeting in Minsk, Belarus, 23 November 2023. [EPA-EFE/SERGY GUNEEV / KREMLIN / POOL]
Belarusian propaganda positions the EU as its main enemy, but several other features make it a unique case among its European neighbours.
*The author of this text remains anonymous due to fear of repercussions in their home country.
The most important and, at the same time, the most destructive peculiarity of disinformation in Belarus is strong Russian influence, which has deep historical roots and covers various spheres, from economy and culture to the military sector.
However, nowadays, Russian propaganda is helped by Belarusian colleagues who work to follow the same narrative.
This narrative includes turning EU countries into an economically and politically unstable military threat in the eyes of Belarusians while ignoring benefits and positives.
Innovative aircraft-based technique records carbon emissions not tracked before from the industrial region
Researchers flew an aeroplane over the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to measure all of their carbon-based emissions. Credit: John Liggio, Andrea Darlington and Andrew Elford
Canada’s controversial oil-producing tar sands generate a substantial amount of unaccounted-for carbon-based emissions that can affect air quality, according to measurements taken by aircraft. The sands release more of these pollution-causing gases than megacities such as Los Angeles, California, and about the same as the rest of Canada’s human-generated sources combined — including emissions from motor traffic and all other industries.
“No rules have been broken, or guidelines exceeded here,” says Janetta McKenzie, an oil and gas analyst for the Pembina Institute, a think tank in Calgary, Canada. “But that speaks to some issues in our rules and our guidelines.”How a dangerous stew of air pollution is choking the United States
The team that conducted the study — led by environmental engineer Drew Gentner at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and chemist John Liggio at the federal agency Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in Toronto — used an innovative approach to measure all the carbon-based molecules in the air over oil sands in the province of Alberta. The researchers factored out greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and instead tracked only molecules important to air quality, many of which haven’t been monitored at the oil sands before. These carbon-based gases can seed particulate pollution in the air and react with other chemicals to form ground-level ozone.
The organization warns that escalating attacks on ships in the Red Sea are adding strain to shipping routes already hit by conflict and climate change.
The UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD, has raised profound concerns over escalating disruptions to global trade.
It says that recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea, combined with geopolitical tensions affecting shipping in the Black Sea and the impacts of climate change on the Panama Canal, have given rise to a complex crisis affecting key trade routes.
UNCTAD’s head of trade logistics, Jan Hoffmann, outlined the organization’s detailed analysis of the situation at the UN’s daily press briefing on 26 January. He underlined maritime transport’s critical role in international trade, noting that it is responsible for approximately 80% of the global movement of goods.
Disruptions in the Black Sea and Panama and Suez Canals
The Suez Canal, a critical waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, handled approximately 12% to 15% of global trade in 2023. UNCTAD estimates that the trade volume going through the Suez Canal decreased by 42% over the last two months.
Red Sea crisis: Suez Canal traffic plummets
Suez Danal, daily transits, 28-day rolling average, 2016–23 January 2024, Index, Average=100201620172018201920202021202220232024020406080100120140160180200
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has also triggered substantial shifts in oil and grain trades, reshaping established trade patterns.
Meanwhile, the Panama Canal, another key artery for global trade, is grappling with a severe drought that has diminished water levels, resulting in a staggering 36% reduction in total transits over the past month compared to a year ago.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) 17-judge panel issued six emergency measures ordering Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts which could fall foul of the Genocide Convention.
Here’s a summary of the measures Israel must take according to the court’s preliminary ruling:
Prevent commission of acts that kill or cause serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians. The acts are specified within Article Two of the genocide convention.
Ensure that its military does not commit any of the aforementioned acts
Prevent and punish any direct and public incitement to commit genocide
Enable provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza
Prevent destruction of any evidence related to allegations of acts of genocide
Submit a report to the court on all measures taken to adhere to these orders
The countries’ opposing ideologies amid clashing sovereignty claims could lead to years of militarisation and confrontation in the region if not contained, analysts warn
Manila has been boosting defence ties with various countries with the aim of building ‘collective deterrence’ in the event of conflict in the region
The recent trading of barbs between China and the Philippines over ideological differences highlights the “perennial mistrust” between the two neighbours, experts say, noting that their disparate approaches to democracy and authoritarianism are likely to further escalate tensions in the South China Sea.
FILE – Starved prisoner’s, nearly dead from hunger, at one of the largest Nazi Concentration camps at Evensee Austria, in the Austrian Alps, May 7, 1945. Many were starving to death and inmates were dying at the rate of 2,000 per week. The camp was reputedly used for ‘Scientific’ experiments. It was liberated by the 80th Division, U.S. Third Army. (AP Photo, File)
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FILE- This February/March 1945, file photo shows the entry to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, with snow covered rail tracks leading to the camp. Israel is hoping the U.N. General Assembly will unanimously adopt a resolution rejecting and condemning any denial of the Holocaust and urging all nations and social media companies “to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion.” The 193-member world body is scheduled to vote Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, on the resolution, which is strongly supported by Germany. (AP Photo/Stanislaw Mucha, File)
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FILE – In this Nov. 21, 1945, file photo, Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering stands in the prisoner’s dock at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in Germany. He is entering a plea of not guilty to the International Military Tribunal Indictment. Goering is wearing headphones of the court translating system. Germany marks the 75th anniversary of the landmark Nuremberg trials of several Nazi leaders and in what is now seen as the birthplace of a new era of international law on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. (AP Photo, file)
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FILE – Visitors look at pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust in the Hall of Names in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Sunday, April 7, 2013. The annual Israeli memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust of World War II begins at sundown Sunday. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
BY MIKE CORDERUpdated 2:04 AM GMT+7, January 26, 2024 AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the world united around a now-familiar pledge: Never again.
A key part of that lofty aspiration was the drafting of a convention that codified and committed nations to prevent and punish a new crime, sometimes called the crime of crimes: genocide.
The convention was drawn up in 1948, the year of Israel’s creation as a Jewish state. Now that country is being accused at the United Nations’ highest court of committing the very crime so deeply woven into its national identity.
The Belt and Road Initiative wasn’t a sinister plot. It was a blueprint for what every nation needs in an age of uncertainty and disruption.
JANUARY 20, 2024, 5:46 AM
By Parag Khanna, the founder and CEO of Climate Alpha. FP
An aerial view shows stranded ships dotting bright blue water as they wait to cross the narrow Suez Canal seen in the distance at its southern entrance in the Red Sea.
Over the past two months, a sudden surge in Houthi rebel attacks in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea prompted the world’s largest shipping carriers to halt transit through the Suez Canal for several weeks—with even more rerouting their vessels as the United States and Britain launched strikes on Yemen and the situation has escalated.
Sản lượng giảm, kèm theo người dân không chịu bán cho các đại lý khiến giá cà phê tăng mạnh ngay cả khi đang trong giai đoạn thu hoạch.
Giá cà phê tăng ngay trong thời gian thu hoạch
Những ngày đầu tháng 12/2023, giá cà phê robusta tại thị trường nội địa tăng mạnh so với cuối tháng 11/2023. Diễn biến này trái với quy luật mọi năm khi vùng Tây Nguyên đang bước vào thời điểm thu hoạch, giá thường giảm do áp lực nguồn cung tăng lên.
Tính đến ngày 18/12, giá cà phê trung bình ở khu vực Tây Nguyên ở mức 67.300 đồng/kg, tăng mạnh 10.000 đồng/kg (tương đương 17%) so với cuối tháng 11.
TTCT – Sau 3 tháng, về mặt số liệu, chiến tranh tại Gaza đã lọt hàng top những thảm họa trên thế giới trong thế kỷ 21.
Ảnh: Doctors without Borders
Xin so sánh với chiến tranh tại Ukraine, tuy đây không phải là một cuộc thi hoa hậu. Dân số Gaza là 2,3 triệu và dân số Ukraine là 43,8 triệu, tức gấp 19 lần. Các số liệu ở Gaza là từ 7-10-2023 cho đến 10-1-2024 (3 tháng), còn ở Ukraine là từ 24-2-2022 đến 24-9-2023 (19 tháng).
Workers at a garment factory in HCMC’s Thu Duc City, November 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung
The tension in the Red Sea, which has led to increases in logistic costs and shipping time, is forecast to affect Vietnamese exporters of garment, textile, footwear and leather products from the second quarter of 2024 if it persists.
The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso) and the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Vice President and General Secretary Truong Van Cam said that domestic enterprises are keeping a close eye on the situation to negotiate new export deals.
The Blue Security Program engages with and facilitates high quality research on issues of critical maritime security across the Indo-Pacific.
Bringing together leading regional experts in politics, international law and strategic studies, Blue Security focuses on three key pillars of maritime security: order, law and power.
Blue Security is a collaboration between La Trobe Asia, Griffith Asia Institute (GAI), University of New South Wales Canberra (ADFA), University of Western Australia’s Defence and Security Institute (DSI), United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D). It produces working papers, commentaries, and scholarly publications related to maritime security for audiences across the Indo-Pacific.
Apartment buildings to the west of Hanoi. Photo by Ngoc Thanh
Real estate lost its attractiveness and was not the leading asset class in 2023, according to the Vietnam Association of Realtors.
Speaking at the 2024 real estate forum organized in Hanoi last Friday by the association, its president, Nguyen Van Dinh, said: “The fall of real estate stemmed from uncontrolled development and lack of transparency and safety in the market over a long period of time.”
Between May 2022 and the end of 2023 the property market saw thousands of projects being suspended and many businesses shutting down with 80% of brokers quitting their jobs.
CVD 