التصنيف: أخبار

Political censorship in the West today is “exactly the same” as it was in China under its ruthless communist leader Mao Zedong, exiled artist Ai Weiwei has told Sky News.

The 66-year-old dissident told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “society becomes so timid, to really avoid any kind of questioning or argument”.

He was responding to a question about the cancellation of his exhibition by the Lisson Gallery in London in November following comments on social media referencing the Israel-Hamas conflict.

His post, which was subsequently deleted, suggested the “sense of guilt around the persecution of the Jewish people” had been transferred and used against the Arab world.

He also argued the Jewish community had a significant influence in the media, finance and culture in the US, and that America’s $3bn (£2.45bn) annual military aid to Israel meant the two countries had a “shared destiny”.

Ai told Phillips: “You know, society becomes so timid, to really avoid any kind of questioning or argument.

“So basically I was talking on Twitter, just answering someone’s question.

“Normally you can talk, or whatever you like.

“You can joke, you can make fun, you can, you know, just give your opinions.

“But today I see so many people by giving their basic opinions, they get fired, they get censored.

“This has become very common.”

Referring to his own family’s exile when he was one year old, the activist said: “I grew up within this heavy political censorship.

“I realise now, today in the West, you are doing exactly the same.”

He drew parallels with the disastrous purge under Mao, which took China to the brink of anarchy.

Criticising the suspension of two New York University professors for comments related to Gaza, Ai said: “This is really like a cultural revolution, which is really trying to destroy anybody who have different attitudes, not even a clear opinion.

“So I think that this is such a pity, that it happened in the West, so broadly in universities, in media, in every location.

“In universities or political sector – everywhere – you cannot talk about the truth.”

Ai’s art often addresses political issues in China and he has frequently criticised Beijing’s record on human rights and democracy.

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Asked if he believed Western artists were doing enough to defend freedom of expression, Ai described them as having been “corrupted by capitalism”.

“They are just seeking money and also to be famous,” he said.

In 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport and detained for 81 days. He left China in 2015 and has not returned since.

His main residence is currently in Portugal, but he maintains a studio in Berlin and a property in the UK.

But the artist said he “never regrets” speaking out.

He said: “I’m defending a value which would profit and benefit everybody.

“My little experience does not really matter, but rather I somewhat have to speak out.

“An artist has the responsibility to do that.”

Weiwei’s graphic memoir, Zodiac, was published by Penguin Random House at the end of January.

Watch Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips at 8.30am to see Ai Weiwei’s full interview.

I put my ear plugs in and take a step back. The flash from the tank barrel comes first, then the boom.

Snipers to my left open fire. Red machine gun tracer fire zips towards the village and laser guided artillery thuds into walls.

Israeli paratroopers are attacking a mock Hezbollah village. It’s a drill, but any day now it could be for real.

A decision whether to invade Lebanon has not been made yet, but the Israeli government has made increasingly hawkish statements and all the soldiers I spoke to privately said they thought it would happen.

It would be a bloody war for both sides though. Hezbollah is much bigger, better armed and battle hardened than Hamas, but Israel’s commanders believe they would ultimately prevail.

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“We don’t take their readiness lightly,” a senior officer tells us. “And we obviously learn about their readiness and their experience to fully understand our opponents and our enemies.

“But it doesn’t intimidate us. I believe that the IDF throughout and my unit especially – are much better trained and equipped than Hezbollah.”

There are daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah across the border, enough in normal times to have started a war already. These are not normal times though, but they are dangerous ones.

The Golan Heights in winter are cold and rainy. Low cloud wraps itself around the hills and the wind whips though the valleys. Think the Peak District, rather than what one might imagine the Middle East to be.

The region has been fought over many times. It is now Israeli occupied land, annexed after the 1967 war and surrounded on one side by Syria, and the other by Lebanon – both enemies of Israel.

Old Syrian bunkers run deep into the hillsides as a reminder of past wars and past owners of this land.

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Today it is again highly militarised, as Israel prepares for another war with Lebanon.

Even if there was a ceasefire, and Hezbollah stopped firing rockets into Israel, it might not be enough to prevent war because the Israelis have been very clear that they want to push Hezbollah back, deeper into southern Lebanon in accordance with a UN resolution.

And if diplomacy doesn’t work, they’ll use the IDF to do it.

Israel also violates that UN resolution by flying through Lebanese airspace and occupying some land that they were supposed to give back under international law.

A diplomatic solution to avoid war will need to work both ways.

But diplomacy, so far, seems to have made little progress and Israel is giving signs that it might be running out of patience.

Palestinian gunmen have kept up attacks on Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip’s two main cities – weeks after they were overrun by troops and tanks.

Nearly four months into the war triggered by Hamas‘s deadly cross-border attack in Israel, there was persistent fighting in Gaza City in the north of the besieged region, and in Khan Younis to the south.

It came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military had destroyed most of the Hamas’s battalions and would “deal with” the ones that remained in southern Gaza – including in the border town of Rafah, where many Palestinians have fled.

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Mr Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv that Israeli forces had taken out 17 of Hamas’s 24 main units.

He also said troops were working to destroy the militants’ underground tunnels, which he said “requires more time”.

And while he was working to ensure the return of the remaining hostages taken into Gaza on 7 October, Mr Netanyahu said he would not agree to a deal at any cost.

It came as Houthi fighters warned a fresh wave of strikes by the US and Britain against 36 militant targets in Yemen, aimed at deterring attacks on international shipping amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, “will not go unanswered”.

The United Nations has warned Rafah is a “pressure cooker of despair”, as thousands of people flee into the city from Khan Younis and other parts of southern Gaza.

‘No safe place in Gaza’

The prospect of an Israeli offensive into the town has piled pressure on the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who are sheltering there after fleeing their homes elsewhere.

It is also a concern to Egypt, which has said it will not admit any influx of refugees, in what it describes as a bid to prevent any permanent dislocation.

But an Israeli official said its military would coordinate with Cairo, and seek ways of evacuating most of the displaced people northward, ahead of any operation in Rafah.

Palestinians have reported Israeli tank shelling and air strikes in Rafah, including one that killed two girls in a house.

Grieving relative Mohammed Kaloub said: “There is no safe place in Gaza, from the wire fence to the wire fence [borders from north to south], there is no safe place.”

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After conducting partial pullouts from Gaza City in the past few weeks, that enabled some residents to return and pick through the rubble, Israeli forces have been mounting fresh incursions.

Mr Netanyahu described these as “mopping-up operations”.

The military said it killed seven Hamas gunmen in northern Gaza and seized weaponry.

Israel’s Army Radio said troops in the area were trying to penetrate two Hamas bunkers, a mission it said could take two weeks amid clashes at the sites.

“Gaza City is being wiped out,” one resident said. “The [Israeli] pull-out was a ruse.”

‘Very aggressive raids’

In Khan Younis, overnight Israeli shelling killed three Palestinians, medics said.

Residents reported street fighting raging in western and southern areas of the city, where Israel said a soldier was killed in a Palestinian attack on Saturday.

Troops in Khan Younis seized a Hamas compound and killed several gunmen, the military said.

It comes after Israel announced last week the “dismantlement” of Hamas in Khan Younis.

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Mr Netanyahu said: “To date we brought down 17 out of 24 battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the south of the strip, in Rafah, and we will also deal with them.

“Second, clearing efforts are necessary after the battalions are brought down as our forces are doing determinedly in very aggressive raids in the north of the strip and its centre.

“Third, the underground must be neutralised as our forces are doing systematically in Khan Younis and are doing in all parts of the Strip and it requires more time.”

He added: “The efforts to free our hostages continue. As I emphasised also in the broader cabinet, we won’t agree to every deal and not at any cost.”

Gaza health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their figures, said more than 27,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.

They have said 70% of the dead are women and children. Thousands more are feared lost amid the ruins.

Israel claims it has killed around 10,000 gunmen in its campaign to wipe out Hamas after the deadly October rampage by the group. In the attack, 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israel.

More than 130 hostages are still in Gaza, and their possible release by Hamas is among issues under discussion in talks led by Egypt and Qatar, and backed by the US, aimed at securing a truce.

The war in Hamas-run Gaza has devastated vast swathes of the territory, displaced 85% of its population and caused a humanitarian crisis.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has set a new world record for the most time spent in space.

The 59-year-old clocked up a cumulative total of more than 878 days and 12 hours outside the Earth’s atmosphere – the equivalent of nearly two-and-a-half years – on Sunday morning.

Mr Kononenko celebrated the milestone on board the International Space Station (ISS), which he has travelled to five times since 2008.

“I fly into space to do what I love, not to set records. I’ve dreamt of and aspired to become a cosmonaut since I was a child.

“That interest – the opportunity to fly into space, to live and work in orbit – motivates me to continue flying,” he told Russian news agency TASS.

Mr Kononenko added: “I am proud of all my achievements, but I am more proud that the record for the total duration of human stay in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut.”

The cosmonaut is expected to reach a total of 1,000 days in space on 5 June.

By late September he will have been up in space for 1,110 days – the equivalent of just over three years.

His current trip to the ISS began on 15 September last year, when he launched alongside NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos compatriot Nikolai Chub.

‘No one will return this time to me’

Mr Kononenko said video calls to relatives back home and regular exercise on board meant he did not feel “deprived or isolated”.

But he added: “It is only upon returning home that the realisation comes that for hundreds of days in my absence the children have been growing up without a papa. No one will return this time to me.”

Mr Kononenko is the latest in a long line of cosmonaut trailblazers, including Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man to travel into space in 1961.

His achievement tops the record set by his fellow countryman Gennady Padalka, who clocked up a total of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 48 seconds in space in 2015.

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Russia’s space programme suffered a slump following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but officials in President Vladimir Putin’s administration have since been keen to revive it to its former glory.

The ISS is one of the few international projects in which the US and Russia still cooperate closely despite tensions over the war in Ukraine and ongoing sanctions.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said in December that its cross-flight programme with NASA to the ISS had been extended until 2025.

The space station travels 263 miles (423 km) above Earth at a speed of five miles per second. It orbits the planet about once every 90 minutes.

Parking charges for some SUV cars in Paris are set to triple, after a landmark vote passed on Sunday evening.

Parisians voted to increase the price of parking passes for cars weighing more than 1.6 tonnes from outside the city.

It is the latest effort by Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the host city for this year’s Olympic Games greener and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists.

The cost to park SUVs in Paris’s central districts for drivers that do not have a special licence from local authorities would soar to €18 (£15) per hour for the first two hours, compared to €6 (£5) per hour for smaller cars.

After that, parking would become increasingly punitive.

A six-hour stay with an SUV would cost €225 (£192), compared to €75 (£64) for smaller vehicles.

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