World News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51530808

German exports to China fall 13.5%, imports rise 8.3%

Exports to China fell even more sharply than those to the United States, dropping 13.5% year-on-year to 54.7 billion euros in the first eight months of 2025.

By contrast, imports from China rose 8.3% to 108.8 billion euros.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5231099

Archived version

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Students at British university campuses in China must swear allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], a report has found.

At least 45 universities in the UK have lucrative partnerships with Chinese academic institutions to teach and award British degrees under a scheme called Joint Educational Institutes (JEIs).

The China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI), a think tank, has analysed policy documents and university publications to reveal “large-scale Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideological control” over these British overseas outposts.

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The findings raise fresh questions on Chinese influence over British universities and the risks this poses to academic freedom, amid a crisis in the UK government over designating Beijing a threat to national security.

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Students enrolled at the JEI campuses are, in theory, treated the same as home-taught students and subject to the same UK regulatory obligations.

However, thousands of undergraduates at some of the outposts have been required to take part in state-backed ceremonies, during which they are told to serve the “motherland” by pledging their unwavering support to the CCP.

The report claims these activities form part of “indoctrination campaigns”, which are presented as extracurricular activities.

The Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, which was founded nearly 20 years ago, convened nearly 1,000 students for a flag-raising ceremony in 2021 to mark the 100th anniversary of the party’s creation.

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Details of the event were posted in Mandarin on the institution’s website, with images showing students standing behind uniformed guards as they hoist China’s flag. The university’s president, who is also a party secretary, told students in a speech they must have “strong patriotism” and “love their great motherland” and always “resolutely listen to the party and follow the party”.

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In a programme co-organised by the Dundee International Institute of Central South University, hundreds of students took part in a military-style ceremony in 2022 during which they “pledged their allegiance to the party with concrete actions”.

More than 1,000 students, many in soldiers’ uniforms, gathered in a sports arena, using their bodies to form a large CCP hammer and sickle emblem which changed colour.

“Rest assured, the party will make our country strong,” the university’s website said in a press release about the occasion, adding that the entire faculty and students sang the national anthem and saluted.

In 2023, staff and students at Southampton Ocean Engineering Joint Institute, based in Harbin, China, were photographed raising their fists towards the Chinese flag during a trip to a museum in honour of President Xi’s previous visit, according to the report.

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At least 12 employees at the Queen Mary school were identified by the CSRI as having jobs related to CCP work, including seven who were said to be responsible for the “ideological education” and “value guidance” of the students.

The two universities are among several in the UK which have reported significant financial income from their campuses in China, with the University of Nottingham generating £9.55 million in 2023 and Queen Mary University of London generating £16.57 million.

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cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/climate/p/1398372/climate-warming-methane-emissions-from-the-worlds-biggest-livestock-companies-are-bigge

Ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Brazil, advocacy groups are pushing for companies and governments to set meaningful emissions targets to lower emissions from livestock. > > The world’s biggest meat and dairy companies are responsible for emitting more climate-warming methane than all of the countries in the European Union and United Kingdom combined, according to a new assessment published Monday. > > They looked at 45 major livestock and dairy companies, finding that they generated about 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023—roughly the same amount as reported for Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest oil producer. > >

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37949191

Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem
Thu 23 Oct 2025 05.31 EDT

Although the bill still requires several rounds of approval to become law, its preliminary passage has embarrassed Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier urged lawmakers to delay its presentation during US vice-president JD Vance’s visit – an effort to preserve the fragile Gaza ceasefire. Washington has repeatedly said that any annexation of the West Bank would cross a red line.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Donald Trump told reporters at the White House in September. “It’s not going to happen.”

“I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37901998

Oct. 20, 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37930933

By #MEE staff Published date: 22 October 2025 15:35 BST Last updated: ~1000 EDT

Signatories include Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, actors Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder, and Oscar-winning directors Jonathan Glazer and Yuval Abraham.

Addressed to the UN secretary general, the letter called on world leaders to uphold international law, halt arms sales and impose sanctions, as well as ensuring the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Trump administration hardens stance against the Kremlin day after cancelling a planned summit with Russian leader

The US has sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, as the Trump administration increased pressure on the Kremlin to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine.

The sanctions were the first against Russia since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, and were targeted to cut key revenues from oil sales that finance the Russian war machine.

The move against Russia marks the latest swing of the pendulum under the Trump administration from coercing Kyiv to sue for peace to growing frustration with Vladimir Putin’s maximalist demands.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51562869

https://archive.is/5NgOp

Over 200 Vietnamese students enrolled at a Berlin hospitality school have absconded over recent months

Subsequent raids by German customs and police officers of nail salons and restaurants suggest that many of the absconded are now working illegally in those establishments.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51561557

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will urge China to relax export restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors

The US Department of Treasury has announced new sanctions targeting Russia's two largest oil companies - Rosneft and Lukoil - in an effort to pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37931397

Mitchell Plitnick
20 October 2025 09:18 BST

US President Donald Trump is boasting of having brought peace to the Middle East, a claim that is wildly exaggerated. But he has, at least for the moment, brought an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Trump's willingness to use the tools of his office to pressure Israel into accepting his terms for a ceasefire - terms quite favourable to Israel but falling short of the ambitions of its far-right government - reflects poorly on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and his 2024 presidential challenger, Kamala Harris.

It also vindicates the anti-Trump critics within the Democratic Party who implored their leaders to take a forceful stand against Israel's genocide, warning they could lose the election if they refused.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37915726

By Sondos Asem in The Hague, Netherlands Published date: 22 October 2025 15:06 BST

The world's top court on Wednesday ruled that Israel's ban on the UN's main humanitarian provider to Palestinians and its restrictions on aid to Gaza and the occupied West Bank are inconsistent with international law.

The advisory opinion comes six months after hearings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, where more than 40 states and international organisations presented evidence mostly arguing that Israel had breached its international legal obligations to facilitate the entry of aid to the Palestinian population under its occupation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44528628

• Most economically significant sanctions on China entities so far
• Sanctions package expected to be adopted this week
• China denies anything other than normal trade with Russia
• New listings follow UK sanctions on Chinese refinery, ports

The European Union's 19th package of sanctions against Russia will list four companies involved in China's oil industry that circumvent Western restrictions, EU diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

They said the package lists two independent Chinese oil refineries, a Chinese trading firm and an entity involved in circumvention. The latter is mostly involved in sectors outside oil, they said. The sources declined to provide further details.

The EU has toughened its stance on Beijing as diplomatic efforts have stalled. EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan told Reuters earlier this month that China still denies doing anything other than "normal trade" three years into Russia's war in Ukraine. The EU, Ukraine and its allies view China as a central node in Moscow's sanctions circumvention network.

[...]

The Chinese listings are not the EU's first but they are the most economically significant. In previous packages, the EU listed Chinese entities involved in drone-making and the flow of dual-use goods to Russia. In July, Brussels listed two small Chinese banks, which prompted China to retaliate in August with bans on two Lithuanian banks.

[...]