الكاتب: kafej

As the war enters its 631st day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, November 16, 2023.

Fighting

• Russia acknowledged that Ukrainian troops had crossed the Dnipro River to Russian-occupied parts of southern Kherson. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor, said Ukrainian forces were operating in small groups spread over an area from the region’s railway bridge to the village of Krynky, a distance of about 20km (12 miles), and that Russia had deployed more assets to the area. Ukraine said earlier this week that it had secured a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro “against all odds“.
• Two people were killed and at least three others injured after four Russian missiles hit the town of Selydove, northwest of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said the missiles hit six apartment buildings as well as a number of private homes.
• Two rescue workers were killed and seven people injured amid Russian shelling in the Zaporizhia region. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the two members of the State Emergency Service were killed after Russia launched a second attack while they were responding to the first. It was not clear where the incident took place. Earlier, the region’s governor Yuriy Malashko said at least one person had been killed and seven injured after Russia fired three rockets.
• A Ukrainian civic group said it had confirmed the deaths of nearly 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 invasion by using open sources. Writing in the Ukrainian journal Tyzhden, historian Yaroslav Tynchenko and volunteer Herman Shapovalenko said Shapovalenko’s Book of Memory project had confirmed 24,500 combat and non-combat deaths using open sources. Kyiv treats its losses as a state secret and officials say disclosing the figure could harm its war effort.

Politics and diplomacy

• European Union diplomats said the European Commission proposed a ban on imports of diamonds and liquid petroleum gas from Russia, and also to tighten implementation of a price cap on Russian oil as part of its 12th package of sanctions against Moscow. The proposal will be discussed on Wednesday. The agreement needs the unanimous backing of all 27 EU states.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said the sanctions package against Russia was part of a “hybrid war” being waged against it by Western countries led by the United States. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said the EU had “become Washington’s ‘useful idiot’”.
• Hungary’s European affairs minister, Janos Boka said a “period of reflection and a strategic discussion on the policy of the European Union towards Ukraine” was needed, and that Budapest would not support any EU decisions to advance Ukraine’s accession process or further aid for Kyiv until that happened. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is close to Moscow, claimed previously that the bloc’s strategy of sending money and military aid to Ukraine had failed.
• Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old Russian woman accused of killing military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, went on trial for “terrorism” at a military court in St Petersburg. Prosecutors allege Trepova assassinated the blogger under orders from Ukraine and was working with anti-Kremlin activists. Tatarsky, a fervent supporter of the Russian invasion, was killed in a cafe in April after Trepova presented him with a bust of himself that then exploded. More than 50 other people were injured.
• The wife of prominent Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was jailed for 25 years in April for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, said she feared for his life in the Siberian penal colony where he is being held. Kara-Murza has a nerve disorder after surviving two poison attacks and needs regular exercise and medicine to control the condition. His wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, said exercise was now impossible for him in a cell measuring just 3 x 1.5 metres (9.8 x 4.9 feet). “His medical condition will of course deteriorate in the present situation … They’re using these punishment cells as a method of torture,” she said during a ceremony at Britain’s House of Lords, where she accepted a freedom award on his behalf.

Weapons

• Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it had seen a “serious increase in interest” overseas in its Lancet drone, but would not be exporting the weapon because Russian armed forces’ “need for it is high”.  “[The munition] has proven itself excellent in real combat operations,” Rosoboronexport chief Alexander Mikheyev told state news agency TASS. Russia has been deploying the drones on the battlefield in Ukraine.

As the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit begins in San Francisco, all eyes will be on the meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden as China and the United States try to stabilise relations damaged by trade and security concerns.

The leaders of the two world powers will meet on Wednesday for a more than four-hour meeting on the sidelines of the summit and will have dinner with Silicon Valley chief executives.

Rising tensions between the two countries – including on tariffs, semiconductor chips, surveillance and China’s increasing militarisation in the South China Sea – have meant that US companies have looked to expand or move their China-based businesses to Mexico, Southeast Asia, India and even back in the United States over the past few years.

Biden and Xi have not met since the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022. The APEC summit provides an opportunity for them to meet “and neither side have to worry about the optics of overly accommodating the other in the initiation of the meeting and the meeting venue,” said Chong Ja Ian, associate professor at the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore.

China and the US have worked to find agreement in two areas, drugs and climate change. Media reports said that at the summit, China is expected to announce a crackdown on fentanyl sales to the US and both countries plan to increase renewable energy.

The goal on the US side will be to “keep temperatures in the Asia-Pacific as low as possible”, said Rana Mitter, ST Lee professor of US-China relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. With wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the United States “has no desire for a third war front”, Mitter said.

For China, which is hoping to stimulate a sluggish economy, the goal is to “relieve technology restrictions”, Mitter said.

This month, China reported outflows of foreign direct investment exceeded inflows for the July-September quarter, a first since 1998. This reversal comes on the back of US restrictions on the Chinese semiconductor industry as Washington is concerned its chips could be used for military purposes. Chip companies have shifted those investments to the US, India, Malaysia and Singapore, Nikkei Asia reported.

Other companies such as Apple have looked to expand in India. Mexico has received investments in manufacturing and Vietnam and Cambodia in cellphone and textile manufacturing.

“It will be hard to find a comfortable resting place between the two right now,” Mitter said.

‘Pitch to attract investment’

Silicon Valley CEOs have been major investors in China. Apple partner Foxconn makes most of its cellphones in southern China, and Tesla became the first foreign company to have a wholly owned business in China to make cars.

However, the Chinese government’s crackdown on its own tech CEOs and foreign executives has led to concerns among US companies.

“When foreign executives see other executives being called up by the government, they are concerned. For business, it is all about transparency,” said Sean Randolph, senior director at the Economic Institute of the Bay Area Council, a San Francisco based think tank.

With the Chinese economy slowing, Xi will look to allay such concerns at his dinner with Silicon Valley executives and attract new investments. While his meeting with Biden is likely to remain largely behind closed doors, he is expected to make a speech at the business dinner.

“Xi will make a pitch to attract investment in the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” Chong said. “But CEOs may be less interested in pitches and more interested in whether their employees get detained, their offices get raided and books get additional scrutiny, they have to surrender proprietary information, there is adequate intellectual property protection and they can move their capital out of the PRC when necessary.”

In the past, as the Chinese economy quickly grew, the San Francisco Bay Area was a recipient of Chinese investment in real estate and tech startups, Randolph said.

Those investments have fallen since 2017, the year Xi last visited the US, as the Chinese government imposed capital controls and more recently the US government launched several investigations into Chinese investments in the country.

“Our investments in China are now flat and venture capital investment is down,” Randolph said.

Xi did not leave China during the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years and has travelled sparingly since then, including skipping this year’s G20 summit in New Delhi. For his trip, both China and the US prepared extensively for the Xi-Biden meeting even though the visit seemed uncertain until recently.

Cleaning up San Francisco

The summit will be a showcase for the city of San Francisco, often a subject of media coverage for its growing homeless population and drug abuse. City authorities have conducted sweeps of unhoused people for weeks ahead of the summit. UN Plaza, home to many homeless people and substance users, has been cleaned up ahead of the summit.

In the past few days, bands played there, and there were a dance competition and laser light show.

“We hope to continue this in the months to come,” said Fernando Pujals of the Mid-Market Business Association, which helped organize the events.

Close by, on Market Street, there was an archival photo installation that celebrated the area’s history, including the earliest Pride parades to women’s rights marches.

This tradition of protests carried on for the APEC summit despite the tight security for the event.

Nik Evasco joined thousands of protesters on Sunday protesting a range of issues that will come up at the summit, including the presence of oil company CEOs at talks on climate change; the attendance of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whom the demonstrators accused of human rights abuses; and Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Among them were also Free Tibet protesters, whose demonstrations could dampen Xi’s visit.

Evasco said protesters planned to “shut down” the summit on Wednesday.

Honiara, Solomon Islands – On the highway between the airport and Honiara, the Solomon Islands’ capital, a mammoth sports stadium rises from the ground in the tropical heat like an apparition. The new landmark is, by far, the largest building in the small bustling city that is home to just under 100,000 people.

The 10,000-seater stadium has been built for the Pacific Games, a regional multi-sport event held in a different Pacific Island country every four years. The games get under way in the Solomon Islands on November 19 and have become a symbol of national pride in the remote southwest Pacific Island nation.

“It is the biggest international event ever hosted in the country because it leaves a tangible and long-lasting legacy that will change the lives of people in the Solomon Islands,” Christian Nieng, executive director of the Pacific Games National Hosting Authority (NHA), told Al Jazeera in an interview. “Spectators here will now be sitting in good stadiums where they can watch games and where there are international rules and standards.”

Some residents are also optimistic about the event.

“It will bring in more revenue for the country through tourism and it will generate more cohesion and unity among Pacific Island countries, and lead to closer economic relations,” said Tony, a 55-year-old resident living close to the stadium.

The Solomon Islands, located northeast of Australia, is an archipelago of more than 900 islands with a total population of about 734,000 people. Despite being rich in natural resources, particularly forests and timber, most Solomon Islanders live in rural areas where access to infrastructure, basic services and economic opportunities is poor. Development was set back when a five-year civil conflict, known as the ‘Tensions’, erupted in 1998 and left the country’s economy and infrastructure in ruins.

Two decades later, Nieng believes the benefit of the games will be felt far beyond the competition. More than 3,000 local people will gain skills and experience as volunteers who will help with running the event, while more than 1,000 contractors, which employ local citizens, have been engaged to provide goods and services, such as construction and catering, he explained.

“We have also witnessed in the past sports being a uniting force. During the Tensions, football was organised and in the field people from different ethnic groups were playing peacefully. We may come from different islands and speak different languages, attend different churches, but in football, we are one. So, the Pacific Games is playing that role as well,” Nieng added.

Cost vs benefit

On the public minibus along the road which hugs Honiara’s palm tree-lined waterfront, the local radio station is playing a rallying call to remind passengers about the impending opening ceremony.

The event will attract a total of 5,000 athletes from 24 Pacific Island nations, including Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Fiji and Samoa, who will compete in 24 sports. At the Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport, 1,200 eager contenders have been training in the hope of making the cut for the national team.

Jovita Ambrose, a 21-year-old from Malaita Province, participated in the Pacific Games held in Samoa in 2019 and the past two world athletic championships. “I started athletics and running at the age of 17 years during school games. This is the first time the games is happening in the Solomon Islands, so people are very excited to see what will happen,” Ambrose said.

Within walking distance of the newly-built games city, which includes the stadium, swimming and tennis centres, is the Burns Creek informal settlement, a sprawling community of 7,000 people.

Here, people live on low-lying land close to the sea, their homes laid out along a network of unsealed streets with limited access to basic services, such as power and water.

Still, Peter Kosemu, the settlement’s chief, said there was a sense of anticipation in the community.

“It is the first of its kind here. People are wondering what it might bring because it is new,” Kosemu said. Some people in the community have been recruited as volunteers, but he said that beyond this, “many people here have found it difficult to access many of the [economic or employment] opportunities associated with the Games”.

Near the highway, some residents from the settlement earn money selling fruit, vegetables and betelnut, an addictive nut which induces adrenaline when chewed, at a streetside market. Here, 23-year-old Mercy and her friend, Jennifer, 42, said they were hoping to earn more income from visitors.

Ray, another vendor, is more concerned. The 52-year-old has a wife and five children to support and sells betelnut, which will be banned during the games. “This is hard for us. It will be hard to earn money in another way. I have a family to support, and now I will have to go and look for work,” he said.

The Solomon Islands is an underdeveloped country with large rural and youth populations. About 25 percent of the population lives below the international poverty line, according to the World Bank, and, even in the capital, residents suffer daily power and water cuts. Meanwhile, 70 percent of the population is aged under 34, with only an estimated 22 percent of the new entrants to the job market each year likely to secure formal employment.

Given the country’s immense development needs, the total cost of the event, at $250m, is a major expenditure.

Amid some concerns about the cost, the government insists existing budgets have not been affected and 80 percent of the games’ costs have been met by international donors and bilateral partners.

“We only received grants from all the countries that are supporting us. There is no loan commitment by the Solomon Islands government to leave behind for our youth or the citizens of this country to repay after the games,” the NHA executive director said.

‘Lasting legacy’

China is the event’s biggest financial supporter, providing half the total funding, including the roughly $71m for construction of the stadium, plus other venues, such as the aquatic centre, tennis courts and hockey field.

China’s stake in the event follows Honiara’s diplomatic switch from Taiwan to China in 2019. Since then, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has signed numerous government-to-government agreements on issues from law enforcement to economic development.

It was a security pact, bolstering police and military cooperation with China, announced by Sogavare in April last year that saw the Solomon Islands become the focus of an increasingly taut geopolitical contest amid concerns about the country’s deepening relationship with China in the United States, Australia and even among other Pacific nations.

The US reopened its embassy in Honiara in January, and President Joe Biden has hosted two summits with Pacific Island leaders in Washington to accelerate offers of economic and development assistance.

Blake Johnson, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, told Al Jazeera that China’s funding of the Pacific Games was a sign of its persistence in growing government ties with the Solomon Islands, but “many development needs remain unanswered in the shadow of flashy new stadiums”.

“Both China and Solomon Islands governments are hoping the game’s infrastructure will help to demonstrate the benefits of Solomon Islands recognising the ‘One China’ policy, but many actual benefits are yet to be realised,” Johnson said.

Nieng and representatives of some other government ministries reject the suggestion that big power rivalry is a factor in the games, claiming that financial support for the event has been global.

While the US has not provided any direct assistance, Australia has stepped up with $11m to assist with athletes’ accommodation, staffing needs, venues and sports equipment.

A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Al Jazeera that Australia remains “Solomon Islands’ largest bilateral partner” and “Australia’s Pacific Games support will leave a lasting legacy and benefit future generations of Solomon Islanders, including with better school infrastructure and deeper institutional links with Australian sporting bodies.”

Funding for the games has also been provided by New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Korea, India and Indonesia.

The wife of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has sent “love and prayers” to those “struggling” as she posted a photo of the Fairytale Of New York singer in hospital.

Victoria Mary Clarke thanked well-wishers on X, formerly Twitter, and revealed the singer’s bandmates Spider Stacy and Terry Woods had visited him recently.

The Irish journalist wrote: “Love and prayers for everyone who is struggling right now ❤️ hang in there!”

MacGowan, 65, is believed to have been in intensive care for the past few months and was in a hospital bed with a breathing apparatus in the new picture.

He had been diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year.

Encephalitis is a serious condition where the brain becomes inflamed. It can be life-threatening and requires urgent treatment in hospital.

Ms Clarke said in an Instagram post on Saturday that she was “facing terrifying fears of loss”.

The 57-year-old wrote: “Love is the most beautiful and powerful thing that we can experience as humans but love can also feel painful especially if you are afraid of losing a person or anything else that you love.

“The really really big challenge that we all face is to go beyond what our minds think are the limits of love and what love really is.”

She added: “Sometimes when you love very deeply you will find yourself facing terrifying fears of loss that can feel so big and devastating that you don’t know how you can survive them and you can’t imagine life without this person that you love.

“It’s in these moments when you are staring into the abyss that you have an opportunity… to discover more of who you really are and more of who your soul really is and more of your connection with this person who you love.”

The couple married in 2018 at Copenhagen City Hall in Denmark after more than 32 years together.

MacGowan has faced other health troubles in recent years – he broke his pelvis in 2015 and has used a wheelchair since.

In 2021 he broke his knee in a fall before tearing ligaments in his left leg.

He never fully recovered from his injuries and confirmed in April that he “can’t walk anymore”.

MacGowan has also been open about his battle with addiction.

In 2015, he received a full set of teeth implants as his real teeth were destroyed by decades of drinking and drug use.

China’s leader Xi Jinping has told US President Joe Biden that “planet Earth is big enough” for both their countries “to succeed”.

The two leaders have met face-to-face for the first time in a year, amid strained tensions including over Taiwan, a Chinese ‘spy’ balloon, and hacking.

Mr Biden had billed the meeting as a chance for Washington and Beijing to get back “on a normal course” again.

He said on Wednesday the two economic and military superpowers had to make sure that rivalry between them “does not veer into conflict” and manage their relationship “responsibly”.

The pair shook hands as they held talks at a country house, prior to travelling to a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco, about 30 miles away.

Mr Biden said the goal of the talks was for the leaders to “understand each other”, while President Xi said they bear “heavy responsibilities” for the world.

“For two large countries like China [and the] United States, turning their back on each other is not an option,” Mr Xi said. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.”

Speaking at the Filoli estate in Woodside, California, he added: “It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides.”

Since they last met in November 2022, fraught relations have been further strained by the US downing of a Chinese ‘spy’ balloon that flew over America and by differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, as well as China’s hacking of a Biden official’s emails.

Mr Xi said a lot had happened since their last meeting, telling the media: “The world has emerged from the COVID pandemic, but is still under its tremendous impacts. The global economy is recovering, but its momentum remains sluggish.”

After the meeting, Mr Biden wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I value the conversation I had today with President Xi because I think it’s paramount that we understand each other clearly, leader to leader.

“There are critical global challenges that demand our joint leadership. And today, we made real progress.”

Read more:
Biden and Xi’s rendezvous is more important than ever
China returns to deflation as economy faces many challenges
US warns China after collision with ships from Philippines

Mr Biden will be focused on keeping lines of communication open to prevent misunderstandings which could lead to conflict between the nations.

He is expected to press Mr Xi to use China’s influence over Iran to make it clear that Tehran or its proxies like Hezbollah should not take action that could lead to the Israel-Hamas war expanding into a wider conflict.

Mr Biden is also set to defend the US strengthening its export controls on semiconductor chips.

Mr Xi wants assurances from Mr Biden that the US will not support Taiwan independence, start a new cold war or suppress China’s economic growth.

He is also keen to show America that China is still a good place to invest.