Ottawa - (AFP) - The Canadian government announced on Tuesday that it will impose new sanctions on Belarusian officials, while the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, is visiting the country to urge Ottawa to maintain pressure on the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

This batch of sanctions targets 22 officials of the regime and 15 institutions related to "the manufacture of military equipment, technology, engineering, banking, and railway transportation." In total, Canada's sanctions affect more than 100 individuals and companies in the country.

In a statement, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie accused the Belarusian president's regime of letting "its lands turn into a launching pad for Russia's horrific attacks on Ukraine."

Jolie denounced Belarusian leaders for allowing "the Russian regime to commit human rights violations in places like Bucha, Izyum and Mariupol" in Ukraine, and criticized "President Putin's use of food and energy as weapons."

"We know that there are human rights violations in Belarus, and we also know that Belarus is complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine," she added.

Tikhanovskaya announced, in an interview with the press, Monday, her intention to ask the Canadian Prime Minister to "impose sanctions" on officials in Alexander Lukashenko's regime.

"Today, the very existence of Belarus is threatened," she said.

It also announced that it intends to seek more assistance for Belarusian civil society, in particular for independent journalists, but also for the approximately 1,400 political prisoners and their families.

Tikhanovskaya lives in exile after fleeing abroad from violent crackdowns launched by Lukashenko, who declared victory in the 2020 elections and is considered "stolen" by the West.

Translation by Al-Quds.com - The Hebrew newspapers issued today, Monday, published many reports and analytical articles by their correspondents and military analysts, on the military operation in the Gaza Strip , which ended yesterday evening with a cease-fire agreement.

Yossi Yehoshua of Yedioth Ahronoth believes that the "Sincere Dawn" operation ended with great success in favor of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet, and that a strong blow was dealt to the Islamic Jihad movement, which came out damaged and muffled without a head, after eliminating the most prominent leaders of its military wing and destroying a large part of its capabilities. And I got out of the fight without any achievement.

And he considered that the assassinations against Tayseer Al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, one of the most prominent leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades, would have a deterrent effect and strengthen Israel's deterrence in the region, and would frighten Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and those who followed the operation and understood the depth of the Israeli intelligence capabilities and the accurate attack capabilities of the Israeli army.

He believed that the operation that took place was against what he described as a "weak organization" in the Gaza Strip, as its stock of missiles is limited and of such poor quality that a large number of its missiles landed in Gaza. According to his claim.

He considered that one of the achievements of the operation was the isolation of Gaza from the rest of the regions, in contrast to what happened in the "Guardian of the Walls / Saif al-Quds" in May of last year, when the West Bank remained calm despite the continued arrests, while the day of the "Temple Destruction" in Jerusalem passed. Quietly, despite the Israelis' "entry / storming" of Al-Aqsa, and silence prevailed in the cities of the interior, and no missiles were fired from Lebanon or Syria, despite the tensions with Hezbollah, and everything was calm.

He said: The offensive activity of the Air Force was surgical and accurate, and the technological and intelligence superiority of the Israeli army, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, was very great, and it was refrained from attacking civilian infrastructure. According to his claim.

He pointed out that despite this, Israel will now start preparing for the next round, and in return it will look to Hamas now to introduce additional humanitarian aid and improve more of the situation after it stood aside, and also to consider the demands of the families of the Israeli prisoners who are calling for stopping this aid and linking it. return of their children.

For his part, Amos Harel of the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz believes that the assassination of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad is only a tactical victory, not a strategic one, and that the assumption that the improvement in the economic situation will prompt Hamas to limit the activities of the recent organizations has shown its incorrectness to a large extent.

Harel indicated that the complexity of the negotiations to reach a cease-fire agreement was due to the recent assassination of Mansour, in addition to the Islamic Jihad's search for a difficult achievement, and because the decision-making process was complicated due to the presence of the majority of the movement's political leadership abroad, such as Syria and Iran.

He pointed out that Israel's fears were the fall of more Palestinian civilians, prompting Hamas to intervene, which would have found it difficult to maintain restraint, at a time when there was a consensus on the political and military levels on the need to stop the operation as soon as possible after Israel was surprised by the operational achievements that it made. It achieved it after the assassination of the leaders of the northern and southern sectors of the Islamic Jihad, in addition to the assassination of the commander of the armor unit.

And he considered that the assassinations of senior Jihad leaders indicate a high level of coordination between the Shin Bet, the Israeli army and the Air Force, and even at the level of defensive capabilities by operating the Iron Dome in an impressive way. According to his description.

He said: All of this, of course, reflects tactical successes and not a strategic victory that could have ended in failure, in the event that a Palestinian succeeded in striking the depth, or in an attack near the border fence of Gaza, or the emergence of an international position against Israel, just as Jerusalem, the West Bank and mixed cities are all I stayed calm.

He pointed out that Israel did not expect the sharp reaction from the Islamic Jihad to the arrest of its leader in Jenin, Bassam Al-Saadi, who had previously been arrested 6 times. the border.

He believes that Israel is currently seeking, in the first place, to put pressure on Hamas to exercise more restraint towards the activities of Islamic Jihad in the future, and this seems to be an achievable goal after the last round.

For his part, another military correspondent for Haaretz, Yaniv Kubovich, said that although the Islamic Jihad Movement is the second largest armed force in Gaza, it is still far from Hamas, despite its possession of missile capabilities, anti-tank missiles, drones and limited naval power. However, the damage it sustained during Operation "Black Belt" in 2019, and the "Guardian of the Walls/Saif al-Quds" last year, left it with limited capabilities. Nevertheless, an Israeli security source believes that the organization is still able to engage in combat rounds that last for several days and disrupt the lives of the Israelites.

Cobowicz points out that until the "Black Belt" operation, which began with the assassination of the leader of the Jihad, Bahaa Abu al-Atta, the movement had a large group of about 8,000 missiles, including short- and medium-range, and a few long-range ones, and the organization's elements amounted to 9,000 recruits. Of them 6 thousand fighters.

During that operation, the Israeli army bombed the Jihad missile production sites and infrastructure, killing 26 of its members, and suffered another blow during the "Guardian of the Walls / Sword of Jerusalem". On the eve of the last operation, the organization had about 5 thousand missiles, most of them short-range, and a limited number of up to 40 kilometers, and a marginal number of long-range missiles. as he says.

He added: With the end of the "Black Belt" operation, the Islamic Jihad made great efforts to restore its military strength, but first it had to suffice with its production of missiles inside the Strip, using limited resources with occasional damage to the organization's infrastructure by the Israeli army, and then the jihad later turned to Producing weapons in Syria under the guidance and support of Iran and Hezbollah, and in February 2020, the Israeli army attacked Jihad targets in Syria and Gaza to prevent the movement from intensifying and strengthening its capabilities.

He pointed out that the Islamic Jihad movement has recently been trying to strengthen its presence in the West Bank in the hope that this will affect its presence in Gaza, and that is why it succeeded in forming cells in Jenin and Nablus that carry out shooting operations, and the Israeli army carried out operations against it, killing some of them and arresting a number of others.

He points out that the Israeli security establishment considers that the assassination of al-Ja’bari and Mansour caused great damage to the Islamic Jihad, and that young figures are expected to assume key positions at the top of the organization who are not linked to the political leadership of the jihad in Lebanon and Syria, and it is expected that Tehran will continue to finance Islamic Jihad to arm itself. And pay the salaries of its members, while Hamas will try not to allow jihad to challenge it in Gaza. According to him.

For his part, Tal Lev Ram of the Maariv newspaper says that the achievements of the operation were "impressive", and that the Islamic Jihad movement suffered great operational damage, and that there was a consensus on the security and political level on the objectives of the operation and they were fully achieved.

He added: Israel is not interested in allowing the Islamic Jihad to establish a new reality in which it tries to impose an equation linking the activity of routine operations against the organization's activists in the West Bank, with the Gaza arena and harming the lives of the residents of the border.

He stressed the need to put the achievements that have been achieved in context, given that the capabilities of the Islamic Jihad movement are not like Hamas and Hezbollah, and that Hamas's failure to enter the confrontation was a decision not because of deterrence from Operation "Guardian of the Walls / Sword of Jerusalem", but because of the logic that the confrontation is with Israel now. It does not serve its interests, and its desire to regain its lost military capabilities. Nevertheless, Hamas represents a greater challenge than Islamic Jihad, and the success rate of Iron Dome in a campaign against Hamas will be less than the unprecedented number achieved in the current round.

Jerusalem - "Al-Quds" dot com - Fatah movement spokesman in Jerusalem, Muhammad Rabie, said, "The attempt to impose the Israeli curriculum by the occupation authorities comes in the context of the occupation's plans to Judaise, seize education, obliterate the Palestinian national identity, declare war on Palestinian Arab schools, and kill consciousness." National Jerusalemite Students.

And the "Fatah" movement called for a commitment to the comprehensive strike tomorrow, Monday, which was called for by the national and Islamic forces, institutions and popular bodies in Jerusalem, in order to reject any form of imposing and dictating the false and distorted Israeli occupation curriculum.

Rabie continued, "What the occupation authorities are doing in Jerusalem is an open, rejected, and condemned attempt to obscure the truth of the Palestinian people's right to their land, distort Palestinian history and replace it with the occupation's narrative, which no Palestinian accepts."

He warned against the Israeli attempts to familyize education in the occupied city of Jerusalem, through the pressures that the occupation escalated against schools, and everything related to the Palestinian national identity.

The Fatah movement, through its spokesman in Jerusalem, considered that the occupation measures are a serious violation of all international legitimacy resolutions that affirm that the occupied city of Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories, and praised the struggle and steadfastness of the Jerusalemites in the face of the occupation's attempts and measures that target the identity of Jerusalem.

The Jerusalemite activities had called for a complete strike in all schools in Jerusalem tomorrow, in rejection of all attempts to impose the fake curriculum on Jerusalemite students .

In a joint statement, the national and Islamic forces called on the parents of Jerusalem schools to adhere to the strike, and the necessity for the school administration to adhere to the same position as the parents, and not to violate the national position.

LONDON (AFP) - American actor Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to seven new charges of sexual assault in Britain, after months of denying other similar charges.

The 63-year-old Hollywood star, who participated by video link in the Southwark Court hearing in London, is accused of sexually assaulting a man between 2001 and 2004, and his trial is scheduled to be held in June.

And the Royal Public Prosecution Office indicated last November that Spacey forced this person to "have a sexual relationship with him without his consent." And the Royal Department of Police authorized the addition of seven new charges to Spicey's already full file.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor (for “American Beauty” and “Youjewel Suspects”) is originally on trial in Britain on four counts of sexually assaulting three men between March 2005 and April 2013 when he was manager of a London theatre.

Spacey pleaded not guilty during a preliminary hearing related to the allegations in July. The trial in this case is scheduled for June 2023.

Spacey faces a total of 12 counts of sexually assaulting four men between 2001 and 2013.

The representative's trial, which is scheduled for next June and is supposed to last a month, will deal with all these issues. A procedural hearing is scheduled for 5 April.

Spacey also faced charges in the United States, and in October a New York court acquitted him of sexual harassment charges brought against him by actor Anthony Rapp over allegations that occurred 36 years ago during a Manhattan party. Rap was 14 years old at the time, while Spacey was 26.

Also, Spacey has been charged with indecent assault and sexual assault in Massachusetts, on the east coast of the United States. In July 2016, he was accused of sexually harassing an 18-year-old man working in a bar, after making him drink alcohol. These charges were dropped in July 2019.

Frankfurt - (AFP) - The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was a reliable supplier of gas from Russia to Europe for more than a decade, until Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, raising tensions on the continent and the world.

On Thursday, Russia resumed pumping gas through the pipeline, after anticipation that accompanied the suspension of this process for ten days due to previously scheduled maintenance work. This measure did not remove the ambiguity about the future of supply, as pumping is still lower than usual, which fuels fears of an energy crisis in the European Union this winter.

Here is a presentation of "Nord Stream 1", which has become a lifeline for Europe and a symbol of its dependence on energy from Russia:

Nord Stream 1 is two parallel pipelines that extend 1,224 km under the Baltic Sea, from Vyborg in Russia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany. From there, other pipeline networks transport natural gas to various parts of the European continent.

It entered service in 2011, with a pumping capacity of 55 billion cubic meters annually, making it one of the most important sources of gas supply to the continent.
The Russian state-owned company, Gazprom, has a 51 percent stake in the pipeline, while the remaining shares are divided into Germany's EON and Wintershall D, Dutch Gazoni, and France's Engie.

The project has long been seen as an example of economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union, with countries such as Germany and Italy heavily dependent on low-cost Russian natural gas.

Everything changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24th.

Two days before that, Germany took a sharp turn in the economic relationship with Russia, by announcing the freezing of licensing procedures for the "Nord Stream 2" project, on which work had been completed, and aimed at doubling Russian gas imports to Europe.

The parallel pipeline project was widely criticized by countries such as Poland and Ukraine, who feared that it would give Russia and its President Vladimir Putin a weighted pressure card in the field of European energy security.

Since the war began, Prussia has limited or completely cut off gas supplies to about a dozen countries, in a move widely seen as Moscow's response to Western sanctions imposed on it in the aftermath of the attack.

In the past weeks, supplies through Nord Stream 1 have declined by about 60 percent, and were completely stopped between July 11 and July 21 due to maintenance. And resumed "Gazprom" pumping gas from Thursday, but at low levels.

While Russia says that the supply cut is due to the absence of a turbine belonging to the German company "Siemens" that is undergoing maintenance in Canada, Germany accuses Moscow of using gas as a political weapon against the West.

While it is believed that this turbine is on its way to Russia, European countries still fear that Putin will continue to exert pressure through supplies.

Cutting or significantly reducing Russian supplies will negatively affect European economies. Germany is the largest economic power on the continent, but it is the most vulnerable to the negative impact of that due to its heavy dependence on gas imports from Russia.

Berlin, like other European countries, is working to diversify its energy sources, including through purchasing quantities of liquefied natural gas. However, Germany still imports 35 percent of its gas needs from Russia, down 20 percent from what was the case before the war on Ukraine.

Germany will have difficulty filling gas storage tanks completely before the start of the cold season, unless Nord Stream 1 returns to supplying this substance at full capacity, which increases the possibility of resorting to energy savings.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck called on his citizens to shorten the duration of showers and reduce the level of heating this winter.

The International Monetary Fund warned that reducing gas levels will lead to a decline in Germany's gross domestic product this year by 1.5 percent.

Although some analysts believe that Berlin is paying the price for a wrong policy by over-reliance on Russian gas, any crisis that leads to a contraction in the largest economic power in Europe will reverberate beyond Germany's borders.

Among the reasons for this is that Germany is among the most prominent parties that re-export Russian gas to other countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

And Constance Ztelsenmueller, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, warned that "a gas crisis in the largest economic power in the European Union will cause anxiety throughout the continent."

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a plan aimed at reducing gas demand by 15 percent to overcome the decline in Russian supplies, through steps including reducing the heating of some buildings, delaying the closure of nuclear power plants, and encouraging companies to reduce their needs.
Germany can also ask the European Union for the solidarity of its member states by sharing fossil fuel sources.
Ben McWilliams, an energy analyst at the Bruegel Institute, says, "Large amounts of gas are currently flowing to Germany, originating from Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands."

Geneva - (AFP) - The wreckage of a plane that crashed more than 54 years ago on the Swiss side of the Alps in 1968 has been found in a glacier, police said.

The remains of the aircraft were spotted on the Aletsch glacier in southwestern Valais, near the summits of the Jungfrau and Mönch. Valais cantonal police said the wreckage of the plane was found on Thursday.

And it said in a statement, "The investigations concluded that what was found constitutes debris belonging to a Piper Cherokee aircraft registered under the code HB-OYL that crashed at this site on June 30, 1968," noting that "recovery operations will begin as soon as possible." ".

The Swiss regional newspaper "24 Hour" reported that the plane was carrying a teacher, a doctor and his son, all from Zurich. While the bodies of the three were found at the time, the wreckage of the plane remains missing to this day.

In its statement, the police indicated that the techniques for finding debris in rugged areas during the era in which the accident occurred, that is, more than fifty years ago, were limited.

24 Ur reported that a guide in the high mountains found the wreckage of the plane during an expedition he was leading in the region. Forced to change his route due to climate change and the melting of a glacier, he reached the place where the wreckage was found.

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- China will launch a nationwide campaign to better mobilize the science and technology sector to contribute to the country's rural revitalization drive, according to a new set of guidelines.

The guidelines, jointly issued by the China Association for Science and Technology and the National Rural Revitalization Authority, outline a series of key tasks, including providing scientific and technological training, lectures and industry guidance for rural areas.

The guidelines call for science and technology associations at all levels to lead grassroots science and technology workers to join the rural revitalization work.

The guidelines also require relevant authorities to integrate the construction of science popularization facilities into the general planning of rural infrastructure, expand the service coverage of mobile science popularization facilities, and build more science museums in rural high schools.

Jerusalem - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Union of Parents' Committees in Jerusalem threatened today, Tuesday, to launch an open-ended strike for their children in schools in the coming days, if the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Education did not respond to their demand to prevent the imposition of the distorted Israeli curriculum on children. their children.

Lawyer Raed Bashir told Al-Quds.com: “We sent, on behalf of the Union of Parents’ Committees in Jerusalem, to the occupation municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Education, a message with the demands of the people about (cancelling the distorted curriculum and books, and distributing the correct curriculum), and in the event of failure to respond to the demands, the parents They will take more legal measures and legitimate protest activities, leading to an open strike on education in all schools in Jerusalem.”

Bashir indicated that the parents will take a series of measures, including a warning strike, sit-ins, the distribution and recognition of the Palestinian curriculum, and the return of distorted copies of the curriculum, leading to an open-ended strike. The coming days will be decisive in the form of protest steps.

Bashir stressed that the strike and protest steps are the right of the parents not to force them to teach their children a curriculum they do not want, referring to the comprehensive strike that took place in 1968 against the Israeli curriculum, and the Jordanian curriculum was approved at the time, and the occupation’s attempts to impose the Israeli curriculum failed.

According to lawyer Bashir, the curricula are not only books, but also extracurricular activities, which is what is intended to impose on students and in principle that these activities be with the consent of the parents, as there are 100 malicious programs that are behind our customs and are linked to normalization and Judaization.

Lawyer Bashir stressed that the occupation municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Education are floundering with their procedures towards Jerusalem schools, which are not based on the law, but rather are carried out by orgy, and are trying to criminalize the Palestinian curriculum .

The letter, which was sent from the office of Attorney Bashir on behalf of the Parents Union in Jerusalem, confirmed that the distortion of the Palestinian curricula is contrary to the law and regulations and is an attack on the right to education, in addition to an attack on intellectual property and the rights of authors, and according to the rules and regulations it is supposed to distribute books approved by the Ministry of Education Palestinian.

In their letter, the parents stressed that forcing students to follow certain curricula is against the law, and that some inspectors send warning messages to principals is reprehensible and reprehensible, while the letter emphasized that threatening schools to withdraw licenses, close them, and punish principals and educational staff are methods and procedures that have no legal basis.

Parents emphasized that the distortion and distortion over the course of more than ten years, especially this year, includes evidence and contents that lead to intellectual confusion, and apart from its political purposes by eliminating the Palestinian narrative, the books have become defective, carrying contradictions and educationally ill.

The letter stressed the right of the parents to distribute the curricula that they deem appropriate, and that it is the right to guarantee all the laws and regulations in force, and "you must do it, not give your instructions to pursue those who distribute it," according to the letter.

The letter continued, "In addition, you introduce extracurricular activities without obtaining approvals from the parents and parents' committees, and this matter is contrary to regulations and laws, and most of these activities have malicious purposes, and contradict the Palestinian heritage, religion, customs and traditions."

The letter emphasized that "in the event that the aforementioned demands are not met, parents will take further legal measures and legitimate protest activities, leading to an open strike on education in all schools in Jerusalem."

Since the beginning of the current academic year, protests have escalated against the attempts of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Education to impose the distorted Israeli curriculum on Jerusalem schools, and it was preceded by a notification to withdraw recognition of six Jerusalem schools if they continued to teach the Palestinian curriculum.

Helsinki (AFP) - Four mathematicians won Tuesday in Helsinki the Fields Medal , which is described as the "Nobel in Mathematics", including Ukrainian Marina Vyazovska, the second woman to win this prestigious award since its launch in 1936.

The other winners of this medal, which is awarded every four years, are France's Hugo Dominil Copan, US-based researcher John Huh, and Britain's James Maynard.

Awarded by the International Mathematical Union, the medal honors the "extraordinary discoveries" of mathematicians under the age of 40.

The winners were announced during a ceremony held in the Finnish capital in the framework of the International Conference of Mathematics.

The event was scheduled to be held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, but those in charge of the ceremony moved it to Helsinki because of the war in Ukraine.

Frenchman Ugo Dominil Copan, 36, devotes his work to statistical physics.

This specialist in probability mathematicians and university professor since the age of twenty-nine distributes his time between the Institute of Higher Scientific Studies near Paris and the Swiss University of Geneva.

He won the award after solving “chronic issues related to the probabilistic theory of phase transitions,” which allowed the opening of “new research directions,” according to the award-winning committee.

As for Marina Viazovska, who is the second woman to win the award since its inception eight decades ago, she was born 37 years ago in Ukraine during the Soviet era.

Since 2017, she has been a professor at the Federal Polytechnic College in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The mathematician was awarded the prize for solving a version of a centuries-old geometry problem, by proving the densest stacking of identical spheres outside three-dimensional space, in this case the eighth dimension where symmetry is optimal.

The "compact stacking problem", more commonly known as the "merchant's orange problem", has troubled mathematicians since the 16th century, when the question arose of stacking as many cannonballs as possible.

In 2014, Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani, who died of cancer three years later, was the first woman to win the Fields Medal.

Also, the 35-year-old British James Maynard, a professor at the British University of Oxford, won this medal "for his contributions to analytical number theory, which led to significant progress in understanding the structure of prime numbers and in the Diophantine approximation."

For his part, Professor at Princeton University John Huh, 39, was chosen to win the award in recognition of his "transformation" of the field of harmonic geometry "using methods from Hodge theory, tropical geometry, and the theory of singularities."

Hebron - "Jerusalem" dot com - A 43-year-old citizen was killed, Monday evening, in a traffic accident that occurred north of Hebron.

Police spokesman Colonel Louay Arziqat said that the accident occurred between a motorcycle and a truck on the bypass street in Hebron, and the police are investigating.

Jerusalem - Media Center / The Board of Directors of Hilal Al-Quds Club announced the establishment of a training camp for the club's football team in Turkey, in preparation for the next season.

Lawyer Diaa Al-Shweiki, President of Hilal Al-Quds Club, said that this external camp for the team is a generous sponsorship from the Qatari Umm Salal Club.

Lawyer Al-Shweiki thanked His Excellency Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Hassan Al-Thani, President of Umm Salal Club in the State of Qatar, for this generous gesture, which came as a result of a twinning contract and understandings between Hilal Al-Quds and Umm Salal.

Attorney Al-Shweiki extended the greetings of the Hilal Al-Quds Club family to His Excellency Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Thani and all the employees of Umm Salal Club for the great role in supporting Hilal Al-Quds Club and implementing the partnership agreed upon between the two parties, hoping that there will be a horizon of greater cooperation between them in the future.

Attorney Al-Shwaiki confirmed that the camp will be for 10 days, in the best sports facilities in Turkey. The camp will include friendly matches with Turkish and international teams.

In turn, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Thani, President of the Umm Salal Qatari Club, said that they will continue to cooperate with the brothers in Hilal Al-Quds Club, and there will be joint programs and specialized programs to support youth and young leadership and support the club's sports teams.

The president of Umm Salal Club confirmed that he would work on the idea of working for Hilal Al-Quds Club as a global digital club.

And Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Thani expressed his pride in the twinning agreement with the brothers of Hilal Al-Quds Club, as it represents the value of the brotherly bond between the two clubs and the two countries.

Sheikh Al-Thani concluded his speech by continuing to support Hilal Al-Quds Club and providing all the capabilities available to them.

Kiev - (AFP) - Ukraine threatened Wednesday to dismantle the Kerch Bridge, which Moscow built at a high cost to link Russia with Crimea , as several explosions occurred at Russian military bases.

"This bridge is an illegal structure and Ukraine did not allow its construction. It harms the ecology of the peninsula and therefore it must be dismantled. It does not matter how: deliberately or not," Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Telegram.

Inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May 2018, the 19-kilometer-long Kerch Bridge is a huge and expensive project that took two years to build to connect Russia with Crimea and aims to reduce the peninsula's isolation four years after its annexation.

This veiled threat from Podolyak comes after a series of explosions in Crimea, which Russia uses as a rear base for its invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24.

On Tuesday, an attack targeted an ammunition depot at a military site near the village of Djankoy in northern Crimea, which Moscow said was the result of a "sabotage" act, without accusing any party of being behind it.

On August 9, Moscow reported a munitions explosion at a military air base in Crimea, killing one person and wounding others.

Ukraine has not officially claimed any attack targeting Crimea, but officials have made comments on more than one occasion that suggest that Ukrainian forces may be involved in these attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Kiev will "never give up" its intention to recover Crimea from Russia.

Kiev - (AFP) - The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed on Wednesday that it had destroyed 223 Iranian-made drones since mid-September, while Tehran has repeatedly denied in recent days providing Russia with weapons and drones for its invasion of Ukraine.

"Since the first Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone was shot down on Ukrainian territory on September 13 in Kupyansk, the Air Force's air defense and other components of the Defense Forces have destroyed 223 drones of this type," he wrote on Telegram.

Honiara, (AFP) - A delegation of senior US officials will arrive Saturday in the Solomon Islands at a time when Washington is grappling with Beijing over influence in the Pacific, months after the host country signed a secret security agreement with China.

China continues to show its growing strength in the Asia-Pacific region, as it holds military exercises around Taiwan in a show of strength after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island.

US Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is leading the US delegation, which will make a three-day visit to the Solomon Islands to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II.

Sherman's father was a Marine who was badly wounded during the six-month battle between 1942 and 1943 that caused the Japanese to withdraw, marking the start of major Allied operations in the Pacific.

The United States announced this year its intention to reopen an embassy in the Solomon Islands, nearly 30 years after the closure of its diplomatic mission in the Pacific country.

China, which is represented by an embassy in the Solomon Islands, alarmed its Western adversaries when it signed a secret security agreement with the island in April.

The agreement, which some fear will lead China to expand its military control in the South Pacific, is supposed to be discussed during the US visit.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Mihai Sora, a research fellow in the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowe Institute (Lowe Institute) for strategic research in Sydney, says, "The United States has a difficult road ahead, in the sense that it is clear that the Prime Minister of (Solomon Islands) Manasseh Sogavare He values his country's relationship with China."

He adds, "The idea of choosing between the United States and China will not be welcomed. He will look for a way to work with both the United States and China."

But not everyone in the Solomon Islands supports the development of security relations with China, according to Sora, who explains that this is a "double-edged sword."

The Solomon Islands severed its relations with Taiwan in September 2019 in favor of maintaining diplomatic relations with China, a shift that opened the way for increased investment but ignited a rivalry between the islands.

In November, protests against Sogavare's rule turned into riots in the capital, Honiara, with much of the city's Chinatown burned down before Australia led an international peacekeeping mission to help restore calm.

Domestically, the opposition accuses the prime minister of the Solomon Islands of undermining democracy.

Sogavare reiterated his government's intention to postpone the general elections from next April until after the Pacific Games, which will be hosted by the Solomon Islands in November 2023.

And China is financing the construction of a national stadium complex, according to information that it is worth $ 53 million, to host the games.

The president of the Solomon Islands has faced harsh criticism for attacking the country's public broadcaster. Sogavarih's office this week accused the public broadcaster of spreading "lies and misinformation," saying it had neglected its duty to "practice fair, responsible and ethical journalism."

He pointed out that the standards adopted by the local media "have deteriorated over the years to the point that anything is published just to make money."

In response to these accusations, the International Federation of Journalists warned of "an assault on press freedom and an unacceptable development (...) for the democratic political process."

The union raised concerns when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the Solomon Islands in May. The tour then included press conferences in which severe restrictions were imposed and local journalists were forbidden to ask Wang more than one question.

United Nations (United States - AFP) - The High Representative for Foreign Policy in the European Union, Josep Borrell, announced on Wednesday evening that the 27 member states of the bloc are considering imposing new sanctions on Moscow after the recent Russian "escalation".

At the conclusion of an extraordinary informal meeting held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the foreign ministers of the European Union countries, Borrell said that the ministers adopted a statement "strongly condemning the recent Russian escalation."

"We will continue to increase our military assistance and look into imposing new restrictive measures" against Russia , he told reporters.

"We will study and approve new restrictive measures against both persons and entities," Borrell said.

He explained that it was not possible to impose sanctions on Russia during Wednesday's meeting because it was not an official meeting, indicating that a final decision in this regard is supposed to be issued during an official meeting of the bloc.

Tashkent (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Yi Wang Yi said Thursday that China is willing to further promote and strengthen China-Kazakhstan cooperation, with high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative as the main task.

Wang made the remarks when meeting with Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Teleuberdi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Wang said that in February this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had a fruitful meeting, and agreed to work together to create another 30-year golden period of China-Kazakhstan relations, charting a path for the long-term development of bilateral relations. .

He noted that the two sides need to turn the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries into tangible results, continuously enrich the enduring comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, and promote the sound and stable development of bilateral relations.

He added that China is ready to intensify negotiations on plans for economic and trade cooperation between the two governments, as well as on a new investment protection agreement, and a plan for production and investment cooperation between the two sides, with priority given to implementing more livelihood projects in Kazakhstan .

Speaking highly of the development of permanent comprehensive strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and China, Teleuberdi said the important meeting between leaders of the two countries, held in February this year, was positive, pragmatic and fruitful.

He said that his country is ready to work with China to sincerely implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, and usher in a new golden period of 30 years of bilateral relations, adding that Kazakhstan has provided Chinese citizens with a 14-day visa-free stay system. It looks forward to continuing to facilitate people-to-people exchanges and deepen local exchanges and cooperation.

Teleuberdi thanked China for its support to his country in hosting the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Wang said China supports Kazakhstan in assuming the role of presiding over the conference, raising the level of cooperation within the CICA framework, and making greater contributions to regional security and development.

The two sides also agreed to enhance coordination within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and to support Uzbekistan in playing its role as the country that holds the presidency of the organization, and in hosting the organization's summit in Samarkand.

The two sides called for joint efforts to maintain the stability of the production and supply chain in Eurasia, the smooth operation of freight trains between China and Europe, and to play a constructive role in effectively addressing global food and energy security challenges.

The two sides also praised the role and prospects of the meeting mechanism of China and the five Central Asian countries, adding that they will implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries at the virtual summit between China and Central Asian countries, with a focus on priority areas such as transportation, economy and trade, investment, industrial agriculture, and energy. , customs, people-to-people exchanges - to push mutually beneficial cooperation to a new level.

Gaza - "Jerusalem" dot com - Palestinian, Egyptian and Israeli sources confirmed today, Sunday, initial understandings on a cease-fire this evening.

According to a source who spoke to Al-Quds.com, Egypt has received promises from the Islamic Jihad to respond to its intensive efforts made in the last hours, and its readiness to stop the rocket fire.

And the source indicated that the calm is linked to the Israeli aggression, and that it will not hesitate to respond to its continuation.

For its part, Al-Jazeera channel quoted sources as saying that Egypt will issue a statement at five o'clock in the afternoon announcing that the shooting will stop at eight o'clock, and that it will later deal with the issue of the two prisoners, Bassam Al-Saadi and Khalil Awawda, while Israel will commit to bringing fuel to Gaza tomorrow.

Israeli sources also confirmed that the government in Tel Aviv had informed Egypt some time ago that it would agree to a cease-fire.

Hebron - "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces demolished two brick and tin rooms, east of Yatta .

According to press sources, the occupation forces stormed the village of Al-Deirat, and demolished two rooms made of bricks and tin, in the Barouq area, for the citizen Rabi` Al-Ja'bari.

Jerusalem - Media of the Olympic Committee / The Cycling Union concluded the mountain bike championship in Asira Al-Shamaliya, Nablus District, in partnership with the Olympic Committee, as part of the activities of the National Olympic Week.

85 cyclists from the categories of adults, youth, juniors, and cubs participated in the activity, in the track that was organized between the Union and the municipality of Asira Al-Shamaliya. And Uday Al-Baz won the first place in the adult category, secondly Hussein Abu Armila, and thirdly Munther Abu Bakra.

In the youth category, Omar Zaghloul won first place, Muhammad Abu Armila second, Qutaiba Sultan third, while Ayoub ranked first in the junior category, his runner-up Samir Shana’a, and third came Ezz Al-Masry.

As for the cubs category, the results were as follows: Fouad Al-Baz first, Amid Abu Khurmah second, and Muhammad Qaddumi third. The Cycling Union thanked the union's cadres that supervised the activity, the "Jawwal" company and the Nablus Businessmen Forum for their contribution to organizing the event.

SAN FRANCISCO - (AFP) - "About 50% of employees will be affected" by the company's ongoing layoffs, according to an internal document sent to Twitter employees seen by AFP on Friday.

The California-based company, which was bought by Elon Musk last week and had 7,500 employees at the end of October, began a series of layoffs around the world and announced the temporary closure of its offices.

"Woke up to the news that my time at Twitter is over," said Michelle Austin, Twitter's director of public policy for the United States and Canada. "I feel sad."

And before the layoffs, Twitter closed its offices all over the world and asked the workers to stay at home, awaiting news of their fate in the company.

Twitter employees have been anticipating this kind of bad news since Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the network for $44 billion late last week, and his haste to dissolve its board of directors and fire its CEO and a number of senior managers.

On Thursday evening, a group of five employees who were fired from Twitter sued the company for failing to notify them of the decision before the 60-day period required by US federal and California law, according to the text of the complaint.

"We are witnessing the real destruction of one of the most powerful communications systems in the world. Elon Musk is an eccentric billionaire who is not qualified to run this platform," said Nicole Gale, a Twitter director who was among a coalition of 60 human rights organizations that called Friday for an advertiser boycott of the platform.

The lawsuit is based on a law referred to as "Warren", which gives employees and workers the right to obtain early warning in cases of mass layoffs or closures of facilities.

The lawsuit also asks the court to prevent Twitter from requiring employees to sign documents that would result in a waiver of their rights under the Warren Act.

Musk's review of the workplace and staff, among other projects, was so grueling that some engineers even spent the night at Twitter's headquarters over the weekend.

The email, sent Thursday, told employees to go home and not come to work on Friday.
"Our offices will be temporarily closed and all private entry cards will be suspended," the letter said, and "those on their way to the office must turn around and go home."

The letter acknowledged that Twitter was going through a "challenging experience".

"We know this will impact a number of people who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but unfortunately this action is necessary to ensure the company's success continues."

However, some employees criticized these measures.

"The current layoffs are a travesty and a disgrace. Tesla guys are making decisions about people they know nothing about except for the number of lines of code produced. This is a travesty," Taylor Lees, the manager of a team of engineers who said he had been laid off, wrote in a tweet Sunday.

Several engineers were asked to type the last lines of code they produced, said an employee who asked not to be named.

Lists were also drawn up comparing computer scientists, particularly on the basis of their output, according to another employee.

Musk, who says the Twitter acquisition is overvalued, is looking for ways to make Twitter monetize quickly.

One of his ideas was to announce an eight dollar monthly fee for users wishing to verify their accounts on the platform.

A news report this week stated that Musk wanted to charge a $20 monthly fee, but faced angry reactions, including what famous book author Stephen King wrote, in a tweet, "$20 a month to keep the blue tick?", followed by an expletive.

Musk responded on Twitter, almost bargaining with King, saying, "We have to pay the bills somehow! Twitter can't just rely on advertisers. How about eight dollars?"

Global companies such as General Mills and Volkswagen suspended their advertising on Twitter Thursday, as pressure mounts on Musk to turn his platform into a profitable business.

Car giant General Motors was the first major advertiser to suspend its advertising in the wake of the purchase.

Officials and civil rights groups have expressed concern that Musk will open the site to hate speech and misinformation, and restore banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump.

Advertisers are Twitter's main source of revenue, and Musk sought reassurance that the site would not become a "nasty free-for-all place".

Ankara - (AFP) - Turkey appointed an ambassador to Israel after this position had been vacant for four years, in the latest step towards normalizing relations with the Jewish state.

Cakir Ozkan Torunlar, a veteran diplomat who served as Turkey's consul general in Jerusalem between 2010 and 2014, was appointed to the post by presidential decree on Friday night, Turkish media reported.

Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Israel in May 2018 and expelled the Israeli envoy after dozens of Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army.

Israel responded to this by returning the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to his country.

Relations between the two sides were strained after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Israel's policy towards the Palestinians under the governments of its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Erdogan sent a congratulatory message to Netanyahu after his bloc won the elections earlier this month.

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Sunday, the Ministry of Education decided to suspend the application of the General Secondary School Certificate Exam 2022, "the second session", in the Gaza Strip, due to the continuous Israeli aggression .

The exams were scheduled to start tomorrow, Monday, "for the southern governorates only."

Gaza - exclusive to "Al Quds" dot com - Palestinian sources said, this morning, Wednesday, that the efforts of the mediators between the resistance and the Israeli occupation have begun to succeed in preventing a possible escalation that could explode at any moment after the Israeli military operation in Jenin , which led to the arrest of the leader of the Islamic Jihad . The Islamist , Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi, in a barbaric manner, angered the movement.

The sources told Al-Quds.com that intensive contacts took place since yesterday evening and throughout last night, between mediators from the Egyptian intelligence and Qatar, and even with the intervention of parties in the United Nations, to try to prevent the Gaza Strip from being dragged into an intolerable escalation at the present time.

The sources pointed out that the Islamic Jihad movement responded to the calls after ignoring a number of them from the moment of Saadi's arrest until Tuesday afternoon.

The sources indicated that the Islamic Jihad movement had clearly asked the mediators to oblige the occupation to stop its attacks in the West Bank, and that it could not stand by and watch the continued killing and arrest of its members.

In the same context, Khalid al-Batsh, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Jihad Movement, said in televised statements this morning that contacts with the Egyptian side are continuing, and that the movement responded to the efforts based on the need for the Israeli attacks to stop.

Al-Batsh confirmed that members of Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, are still on alert.

In the context, the Israeli occupation forces continue the state of alert, and are still closing the roads in the Gaza Strip, while reinforcing their forces with only 100 soldiers to deal with emergencies.

Berlin (AFP) - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged Sunday to invest $1.2 billion to help eradicate polio from the world, at an international health conference in Berlin.

"The eradication of polio is within reach. But the disease remains a threat," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Foundation, in a video address at the World Health Summit currently taking place in the German capital.

The money will be paid to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private collaboration that aims to eradicate by 2026 the disease for which an existing vaccine could be used.

This highly contagious disease invades the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis. It most often affects children under the age of five. But it may infect anyone who has not received the vaccine against it.

Since its launch in 1988, the initiative has helped reduce polio cases by more than 99% worldwide, and prevented more than twenty million cases of paralysis, the foundation said in a statement.

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries in the world where polio is classified as an endemic disease.

However, two African countries, Malawi and Mozambique, detected in 2022 cases of polio that entered their lands.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation considered that "despite the historic progress recorded in recent years, routine vaccinations, misinformation about vaccination, political unrest and the catastrophic floods in Pakistan in 2022 highlighted the need to complete the work on polio."

Among other "disturbing" indicators: the monitoring of variants of the virus in countries from which polio had been eradicated, including recently the United States and Britain, according to the foundation.

Cairo - (AFP) - Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, Tareq Amer, submitted his resignation to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who accepted his apology for continuing in his position and appointed him as his advisor.

And the government’s Al-Ahram Gate website reported on its website, Wednesday, that “President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a republican decree appointing Tariq Amer, the governor of the Central Bank, as an advisor to the President of the Republic … and accepts his apology for continuing in his position.”

Amer was appointed as Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt for a period of four years, starting in October 2015.

Until now, it has not been officially announced who will succeed Amer, especially since the country is going through a critical time with regard to financial policies to try to control the rate of price rise on the one hand, after the annual inflation rate reached approximately 15%, and to try to save foreign exchange on the other hand, as Egypt seeks to get out of the crisis. Consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Coinciding with the announcement of Amer's departure from his position, the main Egyptian stock index (EGX30) rose in Wednesday's session by more than 1%, recording 9,945 points.

Under Amer, the local currency witnessed two waves of flotation against the US dollar in 2016 and last March, bringing the Egyptian pound to its lowest level in more than 5 years, as the price of the dollar recorded 19.10 pounds, according to Central Bank data.

Egypt is currently negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a new loan to mitigate the repercussions of the war in Ukraine on the economy of the country, where the poverty rate reaches about 30% of the total population, which exceeds 103 million people.

Damascus - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Palestinian national basketball team for juniors lost today, Friday, to its Lebanese counterpart, 100-38, in the semi-finals of the West Asian Basketball Championship for the under-18 category, which is held in Al-Fayhaa Sports City in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The Lebanese team will face the winner of the Syria-Iraq match in the final match, while our team will meet the losing team in the third-place match.

The first and second places will qualify directly for the Asian Cup finals, which will be held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, next August.

Our national team was bottom of the standings at the end of the first round, with three defeats against the Syrian team with a score of 87-55, against Lebanon with a score of 101-65, and against Iraq with a score of 67-53.

Gaza - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Islamic Jihad Movement organized, on Monday evening, a solidarity march with the prisoners in the occupation prisons, especially the hunger strikers Raed Rayan and Khalil Awawda.

The movement's leadership in Gaza and leaders of the factions participated in the march, who affirmed their support for the prisoners in the occupation prisons, calling on international and human rights institutions to shoulder their responsibilities towards the suffering of the prisoners.

A member of the Political Bureau of the Jihad, Khaled al-Batsh, spoke in a speech during the march, saying: "We prove the equation of the Secretary-General of the Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhala, that the assassination of a prisoner is a crime that requires a response."

And the oppression of the occupation carried the repercussions of any harm to the lives of the prisoners on hunger strike, stressing that the equation is that the death of any prisoner on hunger strike is tantamount to an assassination crime that requires a response from the resistance.

He said: "Gaza came out today to cheer in one arena and with one voice, with spirit and blood, we sacrifice you, O prisoner," stressing that his movement and its military arm, the al-Quds Brigades, will not leave the prisoners alone in the battlefields, and will be by their side and bear its moral and national responsibilities towards them.

Translation by "Jerusalem" dot com - The Hebrew media machine has resumed media incitement against Fathi Hazem , the father of martyr Raad, who carried out the Dizengoff operation last April, which killed 3 Israelis.

The Hebrew newspaper Maariv, published today, Monday, described what the father of the martyr Raad is doing as a "hide-and-seek game" that the father, who used to work as an officer in the Palestinian Authority, continues to play. And Nablus to confront the Israeli army and confront it with full force.

The newspaper says that Fathi Hazem has become a "symbol of the Palestinian uprising," noting that although he is wanted by the Shin Bet after his son's operation, the father is still undercover and has not been arrested, and has refused many times to turn himself in.

The newspaper indicated that Fathi Hazem went out, addressing the masses a few moments after his son's martyrdom, praising what he had done, and pledging to liberate Al-Aqsa.

The occupation forces tried several times to arrest Hazem, and they tried to assassinate his other son and wife in one of the operations, but they managed to escape.

The occupation forces carried out several operations and set up ambushes in an attempt to reach him and his other son, who the Israeli security services believe were aware of the "Raad" scheme.

The father of the martyr, Raad, often appears in mass celebrations, especially the memorial of the martyrs, and gives enthusiastic angry words, warning the occupation against storming Jenin and that it has become a forbidden land for its forces.

Amman (AFP) - The Jordanian army announced in a statement that the Border Guard forces shot down a drone coming from Syria on Saturday that tried to cross the Jordanian border while it was carrying hand grenades and a rifle.

The statement quoted an official military source in the General Command of the Armed Forces as saying, "The Border Guard forces detected ... an attempt to illegally cross the border from Syrian territory to Jordanian territory, and it was shot down inside Jordanian territory."

He added, "After intensifying searches and inspections of the area, an M4 rifle and four hand grenades were found, and it was found that the drone was prepared with a booby-trapped device, in case it was seized by the border guards."

He stressed that "the Jordanian armed forces continue to deal with all force and firmness, with any threat on the border fronts, and any endeavors intended to undermine and destabilize the security of the homeland and terrorize its citizens."

The Jordanian army announces, from time to time, that it has thwarted the smuggling of weapons and drugs coming from the Syrian territories.

On February 17 of last year, the Jordanian army announced that it had thwarted a large number of drug smuggling attempts across the 375-kilometre border, which had become "organised", using drones and protected by armed groups.

The army said at the time that the Jordanian authorities thwarted, within about 45 days in early 2022, the entry of more than 16 million Captagon pills, equivalent to the quantity that was seized throughout the year 2021.

The Kingdom confirms that 85 percent of the drugs seized are intended for smuggling out of Jordan, especially to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

The Captagon industry is not new in the region, and Syria has been the most prominent source of this substance since before the war broke out in 2011. However, the conflict made its manufacture more popular, used and exported. Captagon pill factories are also active in several areas in neighboring Lebanon.

The Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are the main destination for Captagon pills, which are easy-to-manufacture drugs and classified by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “a type of stimulating amphetamine,” which is usually a mixture of amphetamines, caffeine, and other substances.

Beijing (AFP) - China warned Wednesday that Washington will "bear the consequences" if US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, as tensions between the two countries escalate.

"If the United States goes ahead with visiting Taiwan...the American side will bear all the consequences," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a regular press conference, as Beijing considers Taiwan an integral part of China.
"We are firmly against Pelosi's visit to Taiwan," he added.

And Taiwan, which enjoys a democratic system, is under constant threat from China to invade it, as it considers the self-ruled island part of its territory and will annex it by force if necessary.

A potential visit expected to be made by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan is of concern to President Joe Biden's administration, lest it be considered a crossing of China's red lines.

The visit comes at a fraught period as President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades, prepares to consolidate his power later this year at a key party meeting amid economic headwinds.

Pelosi did not confirm the visit, but she told reporters last week, "It is important for us to show support for Taiwan," while denying that Congress is moving to support the island's independence.

Taiwan enjoys bipartisan support in Washington, where the two political factions are divided over most issues, and China's warnings prompted calls for Pelosi to move forward.