Trump Ally SNUBS Israel: Chile Cuts Military Ties, Recalls Defence Team Over IDF's Gaza Attacks
Israel faces another diplomatic setback as Chile announces the withdrawal of its military and defense attachés from Tel Aviv, following Spain's recent arms embargo. The Chilean Foreign Ministry said the decision was driven by the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accused Israel of conducting indiscriminate military operations. The move also condemned Tel Aviv's obstruction of humanitarian aid to civilians in the war-ravaged enclave. Top Chilean military officials stationed in Israel have already been notified and will be recalled. The latest action reflects mounting global pressure on Israel amid its ongoing military campaign in Gaza.#chile #israel #gazawar #militaryties #netanyahu #gaza

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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
China silent about lifting export curbs on rare earth metals amid growing concerns in India, world
China is maintaining its export restrictions on rare earth metals, despite international pressure from the US, EU, and India. These metals are crucial for manufacturing various products, including electronics, automobiles, and military equipment. Concerns are growing globally about potential shortages and production stoppages, as evidenced by Suzuki's recent production halt in Japan due to these restrictions. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads China, which holds the global monopoly over the precious rare earth metals needed for manufacturing of phones, automobiles and missiles, continues to play hardball over lifting export restrictions of the precious metals warding off pressures from a host of countries, including, the US, EU and India."China's export control measures are consistent with universal practices," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said responding to a question during a media briefing here on Thursday that Japanese automaker Suzuki has suspended production of its main small cars in Japan because of delays due to rare earth restrictions."Such measures are non-discriminatory and not targeted at any particular country," he said, adding that the question should be directed to competent is the second-time this week that Lin deflected a question on the growing global concerns over the restrictions over exports of Chinese rare earth Tuesday, he evaded a question about reports that executives and representatives of the car industry in Europe, the US and India expressed concern that China's rare earth export controls are creating the risk of shortages that could lead to the stoppages in production soon, saying that the question should be addressed to competent from Tokyo on Thursday said Suzuki Motor halted production of its Swift model cars in Japan from May 26 due to China's rare earth in recent weeks from India too spoke of growing concerns among the automobile manufactures about scarcity about rare earth magnets, which are critical components in electric vehicles (EVs) and even some parts of traditional internal combustion engine China's export restrictions of the rare earths specially germanium, a critical mineral that is used in manufacturing of semiconductors, fibre optic cables and solar panels, has sparked concerns in India among the respective of India as well as many other countries say they are engaged with the concerned ministries and earths are a group of metals consisting of 17 elements. Though present in several counties, their extraction is costly and messy causing massive amounts of to the International Energy Agency, currently China accounts for 61 per cent of global mined rare earth production, but controls 92 per cent of the global exports restrictions of rare earths which were imposed in June last year through a decree by Premier Li Qiang reportedly became stricter since US President Donald Trump imposed 146 per cent tariffs on Chinese week, the European Union (EU) urged China to stop restricting the export of rare earth minerals and magnets, with the bloc's trade chief saying its industries are in an "alarming situation", the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on request was made during a meeting between the sides' top commerce officials in Paris on comes as sectors across Europe raise the alarm about a shortage of rare earths, which are used to manufacture hi-tech goods ranging from electric cars and smartphones to military tanks and aircraft."I informed my Chinese counterpart about the alarming situation in the European car industry, but I would say industry as such because clearly rare earths and permanent magnets are absolutely essential for industrial production," EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday, briefing reporters a day after his meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.


The Print
5 hours ago
- The Print
Belgian govt distances itself from staffer who ‘put up anti-Netanyahu posters' near embassy in Delhi
AWEX is the public service in Belgium's Wallonia region. It is in charge of attracting foreign investment to the region and also helps companies currently operating in the region to export their products. 'Since this matter primarily concerns the Wallonia Export & Investment Agency (AWEX), for whom the person concerned works, we refer to them for more information,' a Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said to ThePrint. New Delhi: The Belgian government Thursday distanced itself from a staffer at its embassy here who was allegedly involved in putting up posters against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in the Chanakyapuri area. On Tuesday, the Delhi Police said an AWEX staff member at the embassy was allegedly behind putting up 'wanted' posters of Netanyahu in the high-security diplomatic area. The incident is said to have occurred last week, with at least two posters seen on electricity poles, according to reports. The incident was being investigated by the relevant local authorities. According to reports, an individual wearing a blue shirt and black trousers was allegedly spotted putting up the posters in the early hours of Tuesday morning. From CCTV recordings, Delhi Police identified the individual and confirmed his employment at the Belgian mission. A person familiar with the matter said that the issue has not been officially raised with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) yet. The ministry can only take action after it has been officially informed of a case. The embassy in New Delhi has representatives from two regions in Belgium—Flanders and Wallonia. The country has three regions in all, the third being Brussels, the capital. Wallonia is the French-speaking region located in the southern part of the European nation. In 2015, India was the thirteenth largest export destination for goods manufactured in the region. Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern region of Belgium, also has an Investment and Trade Commissioner appointed to the embassy in New Delhi. Over the years, India has become an important partner for engagement in trade for Belgium. In March this year, Princess Astrid, the younger sister of the current monarch, King Philippe, led a high-level economic delegation to India for a week. She met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they agreed to cooperate across emerging and high-impact sectors and to 'deepen' the bilateral relationship between the two countries. The Belgian delegation also met with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnav. Brussels condemned Israel's conduct in the current conflict in Gaza and has pushed for the resumption of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory. In April, Belgium's permanent representative to the United Nations Sophie De Smedt declared that Israel must not weaponise aid during the conflict. More than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its 18-month operation following Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack that left more than 1,000 Israelis dead. At least 250 individuals were also taken hostage. Since then, while Hamas has released dozens of hostages as part of deals between the two sides, others have been retrieved by Israeli forces. According to reports, 56 hostages still remain in Gaza. A fresh ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, potentially including hostage exchanges, is currently under discussion. (Edited by Sanya Mathur) Also Read: Zelenskyy calls for meeting with Trump, Putin & Erdogan as Istanbul ceasefire talks fail a 2nd time


Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
Ukraine's drone attack on Russian air bases is lesson for West on its vulnerabilities
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The targets were Russian warplanes, including strategic bombers and command-and-control aircraft, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The weapons were Ukrainian drones, each costing under $1,000 and launched from wooden containers carried on trucks."Operation Spiderweb," which Ukraine said destroyed or damaged over 40 aircraft parked at air bases across Russia on Sunday, wasn't just a blow to the Kremlin's prestige. It was also a wake-up call for the West to bolster its air defence systems against such hybrid drone warfare, military experts took advantage of inexpensive drone technology that has advanced rapidly in the last decade and combined it with outside-the-box thinking to score a morale-boosting win in the 3-year-old war that lately has turned in Moscow's deeply the attack will impact Russian military operations is unclear. Although officials in Kyiv estimated it caused $7 billion in damage, the Russian Foreign Ministry disputed that, and there have been no independent assessments. Moscow still has more aircraft to launch its bombs and cruise missiles against the operation showed what "modern war really looks like and why it's so important to stay ahead with technology," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr the West is vulnerableFor Western governments, it's a warning that "the spectrum of threats they're going to have to take into consideration only gets broader," said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in the past decade, European countries have accused Russia of carrying out a sabotage campaign against the West, with targets ranging from defense executives and logistics companies to businesses linked to drones have been seen in the past year flying near military bases in the US, the UK and Germany, as well as above weapons factories in weapons and other technology at those sites are "big, juicy targets for both state and non-state actors," said Caitlin Lee, a drone warfare expert at RAND in Washington."The time is now" to invest in anti-drone defences, she options to protect aircraft include using hardened shelters, dispersing the targets to different bases and camouflaging them or even building President Donald Trump last month announced a $175 billion "Golden Dome" programme using space-based weapons to protect the country from long-range mentioned were defences against drones, which Lee said can be challenging because they fly low and slow, and on radar can look like birds. They also can be launched inside national borders, unlike a supersonic missile fired from "dramatically increase" the capacity by a hostile state or group for significant sabotage, said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at IISS."How many targets are there in a country? How well can you defend every single one of them against a threat like that?" he resourceful, outside-the-box thinkingIn "Operation Spiderweb," Ukraine said it smuggled the first-person view, or FPV, drones into Russia, where they were placed in the wooden containers and eventually driven by truck close to the airfields in the Irkutsk region in Siberia, the Murmansk region in the Arctic, and the Amur region in the Far East, as well as to two bases in western Security Service, or SBU , said the drones had highly automated capabilities and were partly piloted by an operator and partly by using artificial intelligence, which flew them along a pre-planned route in the event the drones lost signal. Such AI technology almost certainly would have been unavailable to Ukraine five years video showed drones swooping over and under Russian aircraft, some of which were covered by tires. Experts suggested the tires could have been used to confuse an automatic targeting system by breaking up the plane's silhouette or to offer primitive protection."The way in which the Ukrainians brought this together is creative and obviously caught the Russians completely off guard," Barrie photos analysed by The Associated Press showed seven destroyed bombers on the tarmac at Irkutsk's Belaya Air Base, a major installation for Russia's long-range bomber force. At least three Tu-95 four-engine turboprop bombers and four Tu-22M twin-engine supersonic bombers appear to be the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, the outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian military has adopted a creative approach to warfare. Its forces deployed wooden decoys of expensive US HIMARS air defence systems to draw Russia's missile fire, created anti-drone units that operate on pickup trucks, and repurposed captured compared Sunday's attack to Israel's operation last year in which pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria. Israel also has used small, exploding drones to attack targets in Lebanon and US used Predator drones more than a decade ago to kill insurgents in Afghanistan from thousands of miles away. Developments in technology have made those capabilities available in smaller compared the state of drone warfare to that of the development of the tank, which made its debut in 1916 in World War I. Engineers sought to work out how to best integrate tanks into a working battlefield scenario - contemplating everything from a tiny vehicle to a giant one "with 18 turrets" before settling on the version used in World War drones, "we are in the phase of figuring that out, and things are changing so rapidly that what works today might not work tomorrow," he the attack affects Russian operations in UkraineThe Tu-95 bombers hit by Ukraine are "effectively irreplaceable" because they're no longer in production, said Hinz, the IISS expert. Ukraine said it also hit an A-50 early warning and control aircraft, similar to the West's AWACS planes, that coordinate aerial attacks. Russia has even fewer of these."Whichever way you cut the cake for Russia, this requires expense," said Thomas Withington of the Royal United Services Institute in London. "You can see the billions of dollars mounting up,"Russia must repair the damaged planes, better protect its remaining aircraft and improve its ability to disrupt such operations, he said. Experts also suggested the strikes could force Moscow to speed up its programme to replace the underscoring Russian vulnerabilities, it's not clear if it will mean reduced airstrikes on has focused on trying to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences with drones throughout the war, including the use of decoys without payloads. On some nights last month, Moscow launched over 300 drones."Even if Ukraine was able to damage a significant portion of the Russian bomber force, it's not entirely clear that the bomber force was playing a linchpin role in the war at this point," Lee air force data analysed by AP shows that from July 2024 through December 2024, Russia used Tu-22M3s and Tu-95s 14 times against Ukraine but used drones almost every operation might temporarily reduce Russia's ability to launch strategic missile attacks but it will probably find ways to compensate, Lee said.