World War 3: Tensions explode as China is caught off guard by surprise India attack - Daily Express

The operation saw Indian forces capture a key outpost in the Himalayas on the border with China. The move sparked renewed fears of open warfare between the two regional powers which could spark a global conflict.

In June, 20 Indian soldiers were killed during hand-to-hand fighting with their Chinese counterparts along the contested border.

Speaking to Yahoo News Indian officials claimed their troops climbed mountains for six hours to reach a strategic position by Pangong Lake.

The move was reportedly made in retaliation for a recent intrusion over the border by Chinese troops.

Beijing accused India of unilateral aggression and violating an agreement between the rival nations.

The occupied position provides a view of troop movements across the contested territory.

It also makes it much harder for Chinese forces to observe a crucial Indian supply road.

India’s move was strongly condemned by Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry.

He commented: “In China, we have a saying about a guilty man protesting conspicuously his innocence. That’s just what India did.”

READ MORE: Foreign aid row - Tory MPs clash over budget cut amid China warning

Multiple Chinese troops were also reportedly killed though Beijing has refused to provide an exact figure.

In response India blockaded a number of Chinese social media apps including the popular video sharing site TikTok.

According to Jayadeva Ranade, who sits on India’s National Security Advisory Board, New Delhi’s move was partially intended as a deterrent.

He said: “The Indian military move on along the border is defensive but has element of deterrence as well.”

China is locked in border disputes with a number of its immediate neighbours.

It’s claim over the South China Sea overlaps with those of six other countries.

Beijing has been constructing military bases and airfields on South China Sea islands to strengthen its position.

The US, and other western powers, periodically send warships on ‘freedom of navigation’ patrols through the sea to dispute Chinese sovereignty.

Beijing also refuses to recognise the legitimacy of Taiwan as a separate state and has vowed to reintegrate the island into China.

According to a survey conducted by the state linked Global Times 70 percent of Chinese believe India is being too hostile to their country.

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2020-09-03 02:40:00Z
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Biden calls for police to be charged over Taylor and Blake shootings - BBC News

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has urged charges against police who shot two black Americans, Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor.

Speaking in Delaware, Mr Biden did not specify what counts should be brought in the cases, which have fuelled racial justice protests nationwide.

The Democrat spoke after notching up a record fundraising haul in August.

He has a lead over President Donald Trump, a Republican, in opinion polls ahead of November's election.

During a news conference in his hometown of Wilmington on Wednesday, Mr Biden was asked whether he agreed with his running mate, Kamala Harris, that the officers in the Blake and Taylor cases should be charged.

"I think we should let the judicial system work its way," he said. "I do think at a minimum, they need to be charged, the officers."

Mr Blake, 29, was shot seven times in the back and paralysed during an arrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on 23 August.

No action has so far been taken against the officer involved, pending investigations by the Wisconsin and US departments of justice.

Ms Taylor, 26, was fatally shot in her home during a drug raid in Louisville, Kentucky, on 13 March.

One of the officers is losing his job; two others have been placed on administrative leave as the investigation into their actions proceeds.

• What do we know about Jacob Blake's shooting?
• Why Breonna Taylor's name is chanted at demos

Mr Biden also mentioned the gunman, identified in US media as a far-left activist, who fatally shot a Trump supporter on the streets of Portland, Oregon, last weekend.

The Democratic nominee stopped short of calling for charges in that case, but said: "They should be investigated and it should follow through on what needs to be done.

"Let the judicial system work. Let's make sure justice is done."

Mr Biden had been delivering remarks about how to open schools safely in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments came a day before he travels to Kenosha, where he says he wants to help "heal" the city after it was rocked by days of violent protests.

• The Joe Biden story
• What Biden wants to do

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Mr Biden said he had received "overwhelming requests" to visit this latest flashpoint in America's racial reckoning over law enforcement shootings.

The Democrat will meet Mr Blake's father and other members of the family during the visit.

• US father 'won't play politics' over son's shooting

President Trump, a Republican, did not meet the family during his own visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, saying he decided not to because of plans to have lawyers attend with the relatives.

Mr Biden's visit to Wisconsin comes four years after the previous Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, overlooked the Midwestern state during her campaigning, and it turned out to be pivotal in Mr Trump's against-all-odds 2016 election victory.

• Has Trump delivered on his promises?
• Republicans scrap party platform. What that means...

At his own event in North Carolina on Wednesday, Mr Trump continued to talk tough about "violent mobs" at protests.

"These people know one thing - strength," he said.

The president also directed his administration to look into stripping federal funding for "anarchist jurisdictions" including New York City, Seattle, Washington DC and Portland, Oregon.

Earlier in the day, the Biden campaign announced a $364m (£272m) fundraising haul for August, more than both he and Mr Trump pulled in in the previous month.

The Democrat will splurge $45m of his war chest on a single ad rebutting opposition claims he will not stand up to rioters and looters.

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It will splice clips of him condemning violence at protests, which he has done several times since the demonstrations began with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, will air a duelling ad in Minnesota with the message: "Communities not criminals. Jobs not mobs."

Mr Biden has a clear single-digit lead in opinion polls nationally and is ahead by a somewhat smaller margin in the handful of swing states that will actually decide this election.

A new survey covering the critical state of Pennsylvania, by Monmouth University on Wednesday, showed Mr Biden's lead over Mr Trump had shrunk from 10 points in July to three points now.

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2020-09-03 00:51:13Z
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Alexei Navalny: Novichok poisoning shows Kremlin does not care what the world thinks - Sky News

If poisoning is the hallmark of the Russian secret services, then doing it with a military-grade nerve agent from the novichok family is a very clear statement.

The Kremlin was all too aware of the international furore unleashed by the use of novichok on the former GRU agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury two years ago.

That it has been used again so brazenly against the Kremlin's most prominent adversary Alexei Navalny points to the total indifference those running the show in Russia have towards how they are perceived, both abroad and domestically.

President Putin famously cannot even bring himself to mention Mr Navalny by name.

Image: Alexei Navalny is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin

Image: Alexei Navalny fell ill while on a plane in Russia

Mr Putin's press spokesman referred to him only as "the patient" as the activist's family battled to get him to Germany.

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"From the advice of spin doctors, Vladimir Putin never uses the names of his enemies," said the pro-Kremlin political scientist, Sergey Markov.

"Mentioning their name gives them more popularity and credibility."

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Alexei Navalny is not widely popular in Russia, not least because he has been barred from running in any political capacity.

But his YouTube anti-corruption investigations are exhaustively researched, deeply credible and watched by millions.

They expose late-stage Putinism for the corrupt, crony kleptocracy that it is and any high-level bureaucrat exposed in one of those reports, and there have been many, will have a grudge to bear.

Mr Navalny's most recent political endeavour was an attempt to unseat candidates from the ruling United Russia party in any upcoming elections.

"Smart Voting" as it's called - a mechanism to unite the opposition vote behind the strongest alternative candidate - was gathering pace ahead of regional elections on Sunday 13 September.

For the Kremlin, it is an aggravating strategy which they have found no convincing counter-attack for.

Next door in Belarus, popular champions have put the regime on the back foot.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's remarkable pre-election success came down to the fact that she and the two women running alongside her decided to unite the disparate opposition behind one campaign, all three running as one on behalf of the men their president had either barred or imprisoned.

That strategy has caused Alexander Lukashenko unprecedented problems.

President Putin does not want to see that kind of unrest bleed into the Russian sphere, especially with ongoing protest in the far eastern region of Khabarovsk.

:: Listen to Polonium and the Piano Player on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker or wherever good podcasts are listened to

Mr Navalny has been living on borrowed time since he started sticking his head above the parapet with absolutely no qualms.

Now in this febrile atmosphere for the post-Soviet space comes the reckoning.

The German government is urging the Russian government to explain itself.

Until now Moscow has refused even to open a criminal investigation.

In time-honoured fashion, Russia's foreign ministry says it needs more information from the German side. Expect this to go on but Russia will clarify nothing.

As has become depressingly clear too, a tough international response - whatever that may end up being - does not result in a shift in the Kremlin's thinking.

If anything, as Mr Putin has aged, it has hardened.

And as Putinism has aged, it has emboldened those who feel they can act in its name.

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2020-09-03 01:31:42Z
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Taiwan's redesigned passport shrinks words 'Republic of China' - BBC News

Taiwanese officials have announced changes to the passport design, making the word "Taiwan" larger and shrinking the words "Republic of China".

Authorities said the redesign was to stop confusion between its nationals and citizens of China.

The island is for all practical purposes an independent state but China sees it as a breakaway province.

A Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman said this would not change Taiwan being an "inalienable part of China".

Officials unveiled the new passports at a ceremony on Wednesday.

The English words Republic of China - Taiwan's official name - will be moved from the top of the cover to instead wrap around the national emblem in a smaller font, and the English word Taiwan will be larger and in bold.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic "our people have kept hoping that we can give more prominence to Taiwan's visibility, avoiding people mistakenly thinking they are from China", Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told reporters.

As countries have imposed travel bans in a bid to combat the outbreak they have imposed the same restrictions on travellers from Taiwan as from China, authorities have said.

The spread of Covid-19 has brought the Taiwan dispute back to prominence.

While it has won international praise for its handling of the health crisis, it is not a member of the World Health Organization (WHO). China has not allowed it to attend any WHO meetings since 2016.

Taiwan has governed itself since 1949, when the mainland government fled to the island after its defeat by the Communist Party in China's civil war. It has its own democratically elected government, its own army and its own currency.

But under the One China policy, the government in Beijing insists it is the legitimate ruler of Taiwan. It says the territory will one day come under its leadership again - by force if necessary.

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Few countries diplomatically recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation, and China has reacted furiously when countries, dignitaries or businesses have suggested as much.

Milos Vystrcil, Senate speaker in the Czech Republic, visited Taiwan on Tuesday. He gave a speech to its parliament announcing his support and declaring "I am Taiwanese" - a reference to US President John F Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in 1963.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced the move, saying Mr Vystrcil had "crossed a red line" and said he would "pay a heavy price".

It came just weeks after US cabinet member Alex Azar travelled to Taiwan and met President Tsai Ing-wen. The health and human services secretary was the highest-ranking US politician to hold meetings on the island for decades.

“China firmly opposes any official interactions between the US and Taiwan,” a foreign ministry spokesman said when the visit was announced.

“We urge the US… not to send any wrong signals to ‘Taiwan independence’ elements to avoid severe damage to China-US relations.”

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2020-09-02 14:42:52Z
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Alexei Navalny: Russia opposition leader poisoned with Novichok - Germany - BBC News

image copyrightReuters

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, Germany's government says.

It said toxicology tests at a military laboratory showed ""unequivocal proof" of an agent from the Novichok group.

Mr Navalny was airlifted to Berlin for treatment after falling ill during a flight in Russia's Siberia region last month. He has been in a coma since.

His team says he was poisoned on President Vladimir Putin's orders. The Kremlin has dismissed the allegation.

The German government said it condemned the attack in the strongest terms and called for Russia urgently to provide an explanation.

"It is a disturbing development that Alexei Navalny was the victim of a chemical nerve agent in Russia," it said.

• Alexei Navalny: Russia's vociferous Putin critic

Chancellor Angela Merkel has met senior ministers to discuss the next steps, the statement said.

The Kremlin said it had not received any information from Germany that Mr Navalny had been poisoned using a Novichok nerve agent, Russia's Tass news agency reported.

The German government said it would inform the EU and Nato of its findings.

"[The federal government] will discuss an appropriate joint response with the partners in the light of the Russian response," it said.

Mr Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya and Russia's ambassador to Germany would also be informed of the findings, the statement said.

What is Novichok?

The name Novichok means "newcomer" in Russian, and applies to a group of advanced nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.

Novichok agents have similar effects to other nerve agents - they act by blocking messages from the nerves to the muscles, causing a collapse of many bodily functions.

While some Novichok agents are liquids, others are thought to exist in solid form. This means they could be dispersed as an ultra-fine powder.

Novichoks were designed to be more toxic than other chemical weapons, so some versions would begin to take effect rapidly - in the order of 30 seconds to two minutes.

Related Topics

• Alexei Navalny
• Germany
• Russia

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2020-09-02 13:53:28Z
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