All posts tagged: territory

On European Tour, Xi Jinping Heads to Friendly Territory in the East

On European Tour, Xi Jinping Heads to Friendly Territory in the East

When China’s leader, Xi Jinping, last visited Europe’s formerly Communist east in 2016, the president of the Czech Republic hosted him for a flag-bedecked, three-day state visit and offered his country as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for Chinese investment. That vessel has since sunk, scuppered by China’s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine and bitter disappointment over projects that never materialized. Also capsized are many of the high hopes that took hold across Eastern and Central Europe for a bonanza of Chinese money. So when Mr. Xi returned to the region this week, after a visit to France, he headed for Serbia, arriving there late Tuesday before moving on later in the week to Hungary — two countries whose long-serving authoritarian leaders still offer a haven for China in increasingly turbulent political and economic waters. “The Czechs, the Poles and nearly everyone else are really pissed at China because of the war,” said Tamas Matura, a foreign relations scholar at Corvinus University of Budapest. “But in Hungary that is not a problem, at …

NASA’s Voyager is in hostile territory. It’s ‘dodging bullets.’

NASA’s Voyager is in hostile territory. It’s ‘dodging bullets.’

NASA’s Voyager craft have ventured where no other human machines have ever gone — the space between the stars. But that comes with a cost. At some 15 and 12 billion miles away, Voyager 1 and 2 are beyond the protective bubble of the sun, called the heliosphere. Out in this realm of interstellar space, the nearly 50-year-old probes have a higher probability of damage from hostile, high-speed particles, called galactic cosmic rays, owing to a higher number of particles zooming by every second. “We are dodging bullets out there,” Alan Cummings, a cosmic-ray physicist at Caltech — the research university that manages NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory — told Mashable. Cummings began working on the Voyager mission 51 years ago. SEE ALSO: NASA spacecraft keeps on going faster and faster and faster But direct hits are inevitable. In 2010, while on the edge of our solar system’s heliosphere, Voyager 2 unexpectedly began sending gibberish back to Earth. Cummings suspects that a passing galactic cosmic ray tripped part of a computer’s memory — though NASA was …

Russia has gained five miles of territory exploiting a blunder in the rotation of Ukrainian forces

Russia has gained five miles of territory exploiting a blunder in the rotation of Ukrainian forces

War in Ukraine is reshaping our world. Every weekday The Telegraph’s top journalists analyse the invasion from all angles – military, humanitarian, political, economic, historical – and tell you what you need to know to stay updated. With over 70 million listens, our Ukraine: The Latest podcast is your go-to source for all the latest analysis, live reaction and correspondents reporting on the ground. We have been broadcasting ever since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine: The Latest’s regular contributors are: David Knowles David is Head of Audio Development at The Telegraph, where he has worked for over three years. He has reported from across Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.  Dominic Nicholls Dom is Associate Editor (Defence) at The Telegraph, having joined in 2018. He previously served for 23 years in the British Army, in tank and helicopter units. He had operational deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.  Source link

Israeli PM announced plans to rebuild areas near Gaza border, not build inside the territory

Israeli PM announced plans to rebuild areas near Gaza border, not build inside the territory

CLAIM: A video shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing in Hebrew plans to build settlements in the Gaza Strip, with a $5 billion investment from the U.S. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Netanyahu’s comments were translated incorrectly in English captions added to the video. He was referencing a five-year, $5 billion plan approved by the Israeli government on Wednesday to rebuild communities near the Gaza border, in the country’s Western Negev region. Netanyahu does not mention a U.S. investment. THE FACTS: Social media users are using the miscaptioned video of Netanyahu speaking at the start of an Israeli Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to make erroneous claims about the alleged settlement plans. The captions read in part: “Today the Cabinet will approve a plan to rebuild the settlements of the Gaza Strip. We will invest a very large sum of 19 billion shekels to make the settlements of the Gaza Strip available to generations.” “BREAKING: Why did Israel commit the genocide in Gaza?” asks one X post that shared the video. Following an emoji of a finger …

UK Grapples With Uncharted Territory As “Red Lines” Crossed In Middle East

UK Grapples With Uncharted Territory As “Red Lines” Crossed In Middle East

Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday (Alamy) 3 min read5 hr Middle East experts have said that the UK is entering “new territory” in addressing escalating conflict in the region, with Foreign Secretary David Cameron faced with making decisions without precedent. The UK helped Israel to largely intercept an Iranian attack by hundreds of drones and missiles on Saturday night. G7 leaders, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said they were united in condemning the “reckless and dangerous” attack by Iran’s “despotic regime”.  But alongside other Western allies, the UK is insistent that Israel should refrain from retaliation. Cameron met with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog earlier this week with the hope of making this case, but on Wednesday said it was “clear the Israelis are making a decision to act”. He added: “we hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible”. Netanyahu insisted that while other countries had “all kinds of …

Borrowed time”: As we shatter temperature records, experts worry we’re in “uncharted territory

Borrowed time”: As we shatter temperature records, experts worry we’re in “uncharted territory

Our rapidly heating planet is regularly shattering records these days. December through February was so warm — in fact, the hottest winter on record in the U.S. — it’s been described by some climate experts as a “lost winter.” Last year also set new records for global surface temperature, hottest summer and ocean heat content. Perhaps most ominously, the world averaged temperatures 1.4º C higher than pre-industrial levels during those 12 months. “The situation (the temperature trend) is bad enough as it is — there is no reason to sensationalize.” Now the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed that March 2024 was 1.68º C warmer than pre-industrial times, prompting one NASA scientist (Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt) to warn the BBC that humanity is now in “uncharted territory.” This is the tenth month in a row to be the warmest on record for its respective month of the year. Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Salon that “the long term changes in climate are already having effects on the probabilities of some extreme …

After Iranian attack on its territory, Israel says it is ‘ready for all scenarios’

After Iranian attack on its territory, Israel says it is ‘ready for all scenarios’

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet lands at the Nevatim air base in Israel after an air defense mission. Video capture broadcast on April 14, 2024. ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES / VIA REUTERS Powerful detonations shook the air, while lights pierced the darkness high above. Iran’s announced attack on Israeli territory, using drones and missiles, had just begun, on the night of Saturday, April 13, to Sunday, April 14. It was a little after 1 am and no one knew whether to be driven by curiosity or fear. In the street, onlookers pointed out to each other the bright streaks in the sky, a sign of the activity of the Iron Dome’s protection systems, including the use of the Arrow system, capable of destroying warheads beyond the atmospheric layer. These light trails could be seen from Jerusalem’s Old City, creating the false impression that the holy places could be targeted, when in fact they were just missiles destroyed high above the ground. Sirens wailed and repeated orders to go to shelters. And then, very quickly, it …

TechCrunch Mobility: Fisker enters into dumpster fire territory and Tesla chases FSD revenue

TechCrunch Mobility: Fisker enters into dumpster fire territory and Tesla chases FSD revenue

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Remember in the last edition of TechCrunch Mobility, when I wrote that the wheels were starting to come off the Fisker bus? Sheesh. Did they. To catch you up: Fisker issued a warning on March 18 that it was pausing production for six weeks and had just $121 million in cash and cash equivalents, $32 million of which was restricted or not immediately accessible. The company was counting on a $150 million influx of capital via convertible notes and a potential partnership with another automaker. Those hopes incinerated as fast as a gasoline-soaked rag when negotiations between Fisker and the large automaker — reported to be Nissan — fell apart and put that convertible note deal in jeopardy. Shares plummeted 28%, trading was halted, and in a …

Security in Eastern Congo Deteriorating, Rebel Group Expanding Territory

Security in Eastern Congo Deteriorating, Rebel Group Expanding Territory

UNITED NATIONS —  Security in Congo’s mineral-rich east has deteriorated since recent elections, with a rebel group allegedly linked to neighboring Rwanda making “significant advances and expanding its territory,” the U.N. special envoy for the conflict-wracked African nation said Wednesday. Bintou Keita told the U.N. Security Council this has created “an even more disastrous humanitarian situation, with internal displacement reaching unparalleled numbers.” Last month, the United States told Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that they “must walk back from the brink of war,” the sharpest warning yet of a looming conflict. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood again condemned “the aggressive military incursion” into eastern Congo by the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defense Force and attacks including on U.N. peacekeepers. He called on the leaders of Rwanda and Congo “to make the decision to pursue peace — for the sake of their people, the region and the world.” Wood described M23 as “a group which has perpetrated appalling human rights abuses against civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence.” He called the international …

We’ll hand Azerbaijan some territory to avoid a new war – POLITICO

We’ll hand Azerbaijan some territory to avoid a new war – POLITICO

While Azerbaijan has demanded the return of the exclaves, Yerevan hoped they could form part of an exchange, with Azerbaijani troops withdrawing from the estimated 215 square kilometers of Armenian territory they took during a brief invasion in 2022. According to Pashinyan, that deal was refused and the villages must be returned to ensure Azerbaijan does not launch another offensive. No mention was made of whether Azerbaijan would agree to hand over an Armenian exclave within its borders, roughly equal in size to the four villages. The statement came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Armenia, praising the country’s growing support for Ukraine, and said the alliance will support its “sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Armenia has sought closer ties with the West since the start of Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine, with Pashinyan telling POLITICO last year that Moscow is no longer a reliable security guarantor. On Tuesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the former Nagorno-Karabakh region, inside his country’s borders but which was until last year under Armenian control since a war in the …