World News

According to the account provided to Payam, Eli was standing next to her older sister during a protest in Karaj, about 44km from Tehran, when she was shot dead on 8 January.

“She passed away straight away there … and the sister is going through a really rough time at the moment,” he says.

Payam says another relative was required to open hundreds of body bags before she discovered the 39-year-old’s body.

“She found her after 700 bodies,” Payam says, referring to claims made by his family in Iran.

At least 39 people have died in a train collision in southern Spain and dozens more have been injured in the country's worst rail crash in more than a decade, Spain's Civil Guard has said.

Carriages on a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed over to the opposite tracks, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamuz on Sunday evening.

Four hundred passengers and staff were onboard both trains, the rail networks said. Emergency services treated 122 people, with 43, including four children, still in hospital. Of those, 12 adults and one child are in intensive care.

Al-Sharaa is to become Syria’s first president to attend the World Economic Forum, which began today in Davos, Switzerland.

The event gathers world leaders, business elites and civil society actors in the small town of Davos for a few days of opining on the biggest global challenges.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57321488

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277840

TL;DR:

• Chinese officials say Moscow knew about the US preparations for an operation in Venezuela. Moreover, in late December, Russia began pulling diplomats and their families out of Caracas.
• Russia has not informed China about its assessment of the situation in Venezuela, however, which has caused bewilderment in Beijing and called into question the nature of relations between the two countries.
• Because of U.S. actions, China risks losing billions of dollars in oil loans to Venezuela. As a result, Beijing has found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position, yielding to Washington.
• China is discussing the version that the failure of Russian air defense systems could not be an accident, but a sign of a high level of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. In this connection, Beijing is increasingly asking whether Russia can be considered a reliable ally.

Archived

[...]

That an intervention [by the US in Venezuela] was imminent was understood by Russia, one of Venezuela’s most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of last month Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capital, Caracas.

Russia’s assessment of the situation, and its withdrawal of personnel, were not shared with Beijing, according to well-placed sources in China. This has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be “comprehensive”, “mutually beneficial” and “eternal”.

Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation, it was embarrassed by it. Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special envoy to Latin America, had arrived in Caracas and met Maduro hours before the latter was captured. Shortly before, Wang Yi and Yván Gil, the two countries’ foreign ministers, had spoken by phone to affirm China’s “solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability.”

[...]

These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China’s ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground.

China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to Venezuela in return for its oil. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally: about 4 per cent of its total oil imports. Such was Beijing’s confidence in its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated $9 billion in building a petrochemical plant in Jieyang, Guangdong province, capable of producing 20 million tons of refined oil a year.

[...]

It is easy to make crass comments about the significance of losing face in Chinese culture. In this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmanoeuvred by the US and let down by Russia, has sparked vigorous discussion in China — and, in some quarters, speculation that the failure of Russian-built defence systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence, but evidence of high-level co-operation between Moscow and Washington.

[...]

Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisers and thinkers in China.

Professor Jia Qingguo, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well-connected figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia’s isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost.

In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro operation that Moscow’s dependence on China has meant that the latter’s current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China.

[...]

For Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China’s own instincts about order, predictability and control.

[...]

For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark: one partner leans on force, disruption and intimidation; the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability. The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia’s example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play.

[...]

As Charter97, an exiled Belarusian rights organization has framed it, China Has Begun To Doubt Russia.

Well, this is horrifying...

Dear Ambassador:

President Trump has asked that the following message, shared with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, be forwarded to your [named head of government/state]

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

At least 39 people have been killed and 12 are in intensive care after two trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday night in what the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called “a night of deep pain for our country”.

A high-speed Iryo train travelling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near the municipality of Adamuz in Córdoba province at around 7.40pm on Sunday, crossing on to the other track where it hit an oncoming train, Adif, Spain’s rail infrastructure authority, posted on X.

The death/injury numbers have been going up since the last report a few hours ago

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277108

Archived

[...]

In 2024, [Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran’s police chief and a vocal supporter of employing force against protesters] visited China and signed a “memorandum on law enforcement cooperation” with China’s minister of public security, Wang XiaoHong, pledging to “upgrade law enforcement and security cooperation” and “strengthen practical collaboration in areas such as counterterrorism” to contribute to regional stability, according to China’s Xinhua state news agency. Neither Xinhua nor IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, released the memorandum’s full text.

[...]

The People’s Public Security University of China, the country’s top police academy, has run “Advanced Iranian Police Officers Training Programs” since 2015, organized by China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to Chinese school materials and state media reports reviewed by Kharon. Such Iranian cooperation appears to have deepened since, and in 2018, Iran’s National Police University signed a formal agreement institutionalizing more exchange and training programs.

The relationship remains active. On December 25, 2025, just days before Iran’s protests erupted, its ambassador to China visited the People’s Public Security University, pledging to continue “pragmatic cooperation in law enforcement and security,” according to a school press release.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies, a Chinese provider of video surveillance tech, has built deep roots in Iran—and in China’s security establishment.

Its equipment, which flows through sales agents into a country where surveillance technology has reportedly been used to monitor the protests and track dissidents, offers one link between China’s security industry and Tehran’s monitoring capabilities.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies says on its website that it has worked in China's public security sector for more than 20 years, serving clients including the Ministry of Public Security, which awarded it a first-class science and technology award in 2018.

[...]

Tiandy Center is a subsidiary of Iran-based Ati Negar Basir Elektronik Company and a self-described “distributor of Tiandy Products.” An archived version of its website from July 2025 listed 18 offices across Iran and advertised that if a company becomes a Tiandy representative in Iran, it can also represent other Chinese video-surveillance brands, including Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. The U.S. added both those companies to the Entity List in 2019, citing their roles in China’s repression and “high-technology surveillance” of minorities, and it later designated both as companies in China’s military industrial complex.

Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar Company is another distributor of Tiandy products in Iran. According to an archived version of its website from last month, the company listed Iranian government entities as its customers, including the Iran Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the national traffic police. In addition to Tiandy products, Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar also said it was a representative for Hangzhou Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua.

[...]

In response to Iran’s protests and crackdown, China has staked out a clear public position: for its security and trading partner’s “stability” and against U.S. intervention.

“We hope the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and uphold stability in the country,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a press briefing Wednesday. China opposes, she added, “external interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57305272

Total billionaire wealth in the EU reached €2.4 trillion by late November, exceeding Italy's entire GDP of €2.2 trillion and approaching France's €2.9 trillion economy, a new Oxfam report found.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20260118190308/https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ara3abf5ee

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45785833

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45785547

...

Officials were conducting about 160 investigations into security threats linked to enemy states, the vast majority of which concerned suspected proxies in the UK, said [Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism squad and in charge nationally]. In some cases Britons had been unknowingly recruited to feed information to foreign governments.

“We’ve seen a significant increase,” said Murphy. “Every single week we’re working on proxy-based investigations. It does form the majority of what we’re doing.

“The breadth of activity is so significant. It goes from very low-level information acquisitions, and that can be cyberattacks, or it can be trying to turn somebody inside an organisation … right through to an assassination plot in the United Kingdom.

“There are disruptions happening on an extraordinarily regular basis. Almost every month we’re disrupting something — and often much more regularly than that even.”

...

In recent years several Britons have been charged with espionage. They include Dylan Earl, 21, from Leicestershire, who was recruited by the Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation with ties to the Kremlin, and instructed to carry out arson on a London warehouse storing aid for Ukraine.

This act has empowered security officials but the risk posed by foreign states and their proxies is only going to increase in the years ahead, Murphy predicts, as a result of political instability in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine and the mass expulsion of foreign intelligence officers from Britain following the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning — a failed assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for British intelligence and his daughter, Yulia.

...

His intervention also comes amid heightened anxieties in Westminster over the extent and reach of Chinese spy operations in Britain. In November, MI5 warned that various parliamentarians had been targeted on LinkedIn by Chinese agents posing as headhunters.

Before that, two British men were charged with passing sensitive political information to a Chinese intelligence agent. The case was later dropped by prosecutors. They denied the charges.

Critics have meanwhile warned that Beijing’s efforts to construct a new super-embassy in London will, if approved, embolden Chinese espionage and interference in the UK.

Murphy said China was one of “the big three” for conducting proxy operations in the UK, alongside Russia and Iran.

...

He also expressed concern that the algorithms used by social media were fuelling the ease with which Britons and foreign intelligence agents were connecting with one another.

“If someone is trying to understand how they can earn some money and do stuff on behalf of other countries, I’d hate for there to be a situation where the internet service providers or social media companies were pushing content towards those people,” he said.

Not all of those recruited as proxies are aware of their involvement in espionage. Murphy said they had uncovered cases in which private detectives had entered into business with companies linked to foreign states and were tasked with collecting information.

...

Archive link

Russian officials welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland, with Kremlin economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev claiming on Jan. 17 that the move signals the "collapse" of the transatlantic alliance.

Trump earlier said that Washington would impose 10% tariffs on NATO allies — France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland — until the U.S. reaches a deal to buy Greenland. He has threatened to acquire the island "one way or the other."

"The transatlantic alliance is over," Dmitriev wrote on X, mocking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and urging European leaders not to "provoke" Trump.

MBFC
Archive

Deutsche Bank forecasts that China’s economy will grow about 4.5% in 2026.

Archive link

Sharon Cohen has orchestrated the transfer of 608 donkeys to Europe since 2022, most of them to France. Some were entrusted to her by Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza. The soldiers rescued the animals in the Palestinian enclave, where the war waged by Israel since Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 has killed more than 71,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. This death toll continues to rise despite the ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025.

Save the donkeys from the war in Gaza! This rallying cry has echoed across Europe among some animal rights activists. It hardly matters whether the animals truly escaped the war or are simply poor beasts of burden bought from Palestinian owners in Israel. Cohen, 43, believes that almost all Arab owners, in both Palestine and Israel, force their donkeys to work in unacceptable conditions.

Four donkeys were destined for a shelter in Germany. Al Jazeera highlighted the paradox: "Germany has welcomed donkeys evacuated from Gaza. But it blocks the entry of Palestinian children who need medical evacuation." Since the spring, Palestinians have expressed outrage at Cohen's efforts. They accuse her of "stealing" Gaza's donkeys, while two million civilians displaced by the army wander from one end of the enclave to the other, on foot and on carts pulled by emaciated animals.

The operation led by Cohen began well before the war. In the fall of 2022, a senior French civil servant and animal rights advocate drew Le Monde's attention to a shelter in central France called La Tanière, which took in donkeys "rescued" from an alleged trafficking ring in Gaza. According to the claims, the animals were slaughtered for their skins under horrific conditions. The skins would then be smuggled through tunnels into Egypt and shipped on to China.

Archive link

The family of a Mauritanian man who died in custody last week has accused officers of killing him in the latest such allegation of police brutality.

The Paris prosecutor's office said the police had launched an internal probe, but family said they want an independent investigating magistrate on the case.

A video filmed by neighbors, which has been shared on social media, shows a policeman punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches. The family has filed a legal complaint, accusing security forces of "intentional violence that led to a death," their lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday. "Witnesses saw a pool of blood at the site of the arrest," he said.

In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries to a Black man during a stop-and-search in 2017.