Chinese diplomacy for peace in the Korean peninsula and officials apprehensive of Trump’s NATO move after G7 ‘train wreck’.
This FIFA World Cup is more than just a football tournament for Russia
Russia won the opening match against Saudi Arabia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a 5-0 victory Thursday. The win is the biggest by a host nation in the opening game of a World Cup since Italy’s in 1934, and gives Russia a precious three points in the tournament.
The tournament will be hosted in 11 Russian cities spread over 2,900 kms (roughly India’s breadth) and cost an estimated $14 billion.
“Much of the focus on this tournament has concerned more than football: There are political tensions to consider and fears of fan violence, racism and homophobia,” reports CNN. Contrary to the promising times of 2010, when Russia won the right to host the tournament, experiencing a decade of economic growth, this time, much is different.
“The Russian economy is now stagnant, western sanctions have been placed on the country, allegations made of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, reports of cyber attacks and this year Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK after the poisoning in an English city of Sergei Skripal, the Russian former double agent,” the report adds.
President Trump sued by the state of New York
“The New York State attorney general’s office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit Thursday, taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign,” reports The New York Times.
The lawsuit seeks to dissolve the foundation and prevent Trump and his children from working with nonprofit organisations. It has accused Trump of using foundation to “curry political favour”.
Trump retorted on Twitter, and accused the “sleazy New York Democrats” of trying to damage him. He tweeted that he will not settle the case.
The sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000. I won’t settle this case!…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
An old photo shows Australian soldiers flying the ‘Nazi flag’
A photograph taken in 2007 shows Australian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan flying a flag with the Nazi swastika symbol on it, reports the ABC.
“The ABC has seen a second photograph of the flag, and it is understood that further images of the flag in Afghanistan have also been circulated among Australian soldiers,” it reports, having obtained the images for the first time.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull strongly condemned the soldiers, saying their actions were “completely and utterly unacceptable”.
China supports peace in the Korean peninsula
“China supports dialogue that brings the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue onto the right track for a peaceful settlement,” news agency Xinhua quoted foreign minister Wang Yi as saying.
Wang met US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Beijing Thursday, and expressed China’s appreciation for Washington’s efforts at dialogue with Pyongyang.
“Wang said the meeting between the leaders of the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) had important historic significance,” Xinhua reported.
Buddhist monk jailed in Sri Lanka for intimidation
A Buddhist monk, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, has been sentenced to jail in Sri Lanka for six months for intimidating the wife of a missing cartoonist, reports BBC.
Sri Lanka hardly ever sentences monks. They are a powerful political constituency in Sri Lanka. Gnanasara has been accused of several crimes in the past, including hate crimes and anti-Muslim violence, but this is the first time he has been convicted. Sandhya, the missing cartoonist’s wife, has been widely applauded for taking on the powerful Buddhist monk.
Chinese social media has ‘soft porn’ that will ‘scar children’
“Although China bans online pornography, obscene content is still rampant among teenagers,” reports Global Times.
According to the head of the Institute of China Cyberspace Strategy, China should establish an “internet rating system to categorise the severity of online information for children”. According to the report, the director of the Beijing Youth Legal and Psychological Consultation Service Center also advised the government to implement a “compulsory order” to crack down on pornography, saying the “problem will not be solved” otherwise.
Will Donald Trump wreck the NATO summit next?
“After watching the G7 train wreck, aghast senior officials at the NATO headquarters are quaking in their boots at the prospect of hosting a summit of the Western defence alliance featuring a raging Donald Trump in Brussels,” writes Paul Taylor in Politico.
Trump is ready for a trade war with ChinaDespite warnings of a trade war with China, the Donald Trump administration has imposed tariffs on Chinese imports worth $50 billion.
The tariffs seem to be directly aimed at hurting technologies that China wants to establish global dominance in. They are directed at the Chinese plan for global leadership — ‘Made in China 2025’ — wherein the country has identified 10 industries it wants to compete in on an international level.
This comes after the US released a list in April of 1,300 Chinese imports that it plans to impose tariffs on. The list has now been updated and tariffs are likely to be implemented in phases ‘shortly’.
“By plowing ahead with tariffs against China, the Trump administration would undermine efforts by the world’s two biggest economies to avoid a trade war that the International Monetary Fund has warned could undermine global growth,” writes Bloomberg.