Xi Jinping says he is very concerned about the direction humanity is taking, with so many ongoing conflicts, financial instability and continued shocks from extreme weather. A few days ago, the president of China wrote a very weighty letter addressed to the United States in which he asks that both powers work hand in hand to manage their differences and respond together to global challenges.

It has been a long time since the Chinese leader has used such a conciliatory tone to address his great rival, to whom he seems to offer a truce. Washington has also been making moves in that direction for some time, such as sending three North American Cabinet secretaries to Beijing in four months, adding more visits than in the previous two and a half years.

The tough competition will endure, as will the hail of sanctions from both sides, as will the battle to win the narrative and extend global influence.. But the thaw in relations between the first and second world economies is also evident.. This is very important at a time when the world has seen another war break out in the Middle East that threatens to expand beyond Israel and Palestine.

“If the United States and China can establish a correct way to get along, that will be crucial for the world,” Xi wrote, calling for more stable bilateral relations based on the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

Xi's unexpected letter was read on Wednesday at a gala dinner in New York attended by prominent Chinese academic, sports and cultural figures.. There were the giant Yao Ming, former NBA star, Xue Lan, dean of Tsinghua University, one of the most important in the Asian country, and the award-winning novelist Hao Jingfang.. All members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said they had crossed the pond to sow the ground to improve relations.

All this was happening while in Beijing, Xi had a surprise meeting with the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.. At the same time, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Councilor – one of the biggest names in the Asian power – took a plane to Washington.

It was the highest-level visit by a Chinese official since before the pandemic. A trip that has paved the way for a meeting between Xi and Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit to be held in November in San Francisco. US officials have confirmed Xi's attendance. It would be the first time that the Chinese president has set foot in the United States in almost seven years.

The person who met with Biden at the White House on Friday was Wang. They spent an hour chatting. “Biden emphasized that both the United States and China must manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.. He also stressed that they must work together to address global challenges,” highlights the statement that Washington published after the meeting, along the same lines as the conciliatory letter that the Chinese president sent to New York.

A day earlier, Wang met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Beijing in June after postponing his visit for several months due to the diplomatic crisis over the Chinese spy balloons that flew over the US.. That front seems to have been left behind. Like the Chinese Government's tantrum over the 2022 trip to Taiwan of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

That provocation ignited Chinese paranoia that Washington was reconsidering its one-China stance.. There has been no change in that regard, although Asian officials are not happy about Taipei rearming thanks to the increase in weapons sent to them by their American ally.

That visit by Pelosi, in addition to unleashing a wave of unprecedented invasion drills around the autonomous island that they consider a part of their territory, broke direct communication with the US Army on security matters.. A line that has been reopened, as will be staged by a regional security forum that starts on Sunday in the Chinese capital and will be attended by a delegation from the Pentagon.

“The United States and China need to maintain a deep and comprehensive dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties,” Wang said during his meeting with Blinken. The Chinese minister also met with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday. “We seek to expand cooperation that benefits both parties so that we can stabilize relations and return them to the path of healthy, stable and sustainable development,” the Chinese reiterated.

As expected, during the trip of the Beijing envoy the war in the Middle East was also on the table.. Blinken has insisted that he trusts Beijing to use its influence with Iran, one of its major partners in the region, to ensure that the conflict between Israel and Hamas does not spread.

Analysts have pointed out these days that if Hezbollah's army, an ally of Tehran, opens a second battle front in Israel, the chances of one of the two US aircraft carriers in the region attacking Iran will increase.. On Friday it was learned that the US had launched airstrikes against facilities used by groups linked to Iran in eastern Syria, in retaliation for blows against their military bases.

From China, where they have traditionally supported the Palestinian cause, but maintain very good commercial relations with Israel, they maintain an open position with continuous calls for a ceasefire and criticism of the devastating Israeli attack on Gaza, while at the same time they have publicly recognized the right of Israel to defend itself. As happened after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Xi Jinping's Government plays a balancing act with all the parties involved in the conflict, clashing with the majority support that the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has received from the Western powers, starting by the United States.

In the midst of all these global storms, Beijing and Washington show off soft power with these multiple rounds of diplomacy that were previously so missed.. But this approach is compatible with the play of forces that has been going on for some time, with the two titans flexing their military muscles.. While Wang met with Biden, the Chinese navy took a fleet led by the aircraft carrier Shandong for a walk through the Bashi Channel, a waterway between Taiwan and the Philippines, towards the western Pacific, where American warships abound.

“We have moved into a new phase in the war. Last night [Friday], the land of Gaza shook. We attack above and below the earth. We attack all terrorists of all ranks and in all places,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, hours after his fighter jets bombed 150 underground targets and his soldiers remained deployed in the northern Gaza Strip in the largest land incursion of the war against the Hamas jihadist group that began three weeks ago.

“We entered the second phase of the war with clear objectives: destroying the military and government capabilities of Hamas and the release of those kidnapped,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, confirming the expansion of ground operations.. He added: “We have eliminated countless murderers and destroyed countless terrorist infrastructures.”. It's just the beginning. “The war inside the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult.”

A ground offensive that, in statements by the head of the Army, Herzi Halevi, is necessary “to achieve the objectives”. Which is it? The dismantling of Hamas, border security and maximum efforts to return all those kidnapped in Gaza, Halevi listed, pointing out that there are a large number of dead in the ranks of Hamas. Like the rest of the officers and leaders, he carries on his shoulders the heavy burden of not having prevented the mega-attack on 7-O.

But even without thousands of uniformed men in the alleys of Gaza, the attacks are already so intense that on the one hand, relatives of the 230 people in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad met urgently with Netanyahu to demand that they not be put in danger. theirs; On the other hand, a blackout was caused in the Palestinian enclave. A large part of Gazans and UN agencies were left without communications or internet. The World Health Organization reported that its workers, like the rest of the inhabitants of Gaza, spent a night “in darkness [due to lack of electricity] and fear.”. The Palestinian Red Crescent indicated that it cannot communicate with its health teams in Gaza. According to the UN, “civilians cannot receive updated information on where they can access humanitarian aid, nor which places are more or less dangerous”. Never before have Gazans been so supported at the headquarters of the international organization in New York and so isolated in the strip between Israel and Egypt.

According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 7,700 Palestinians (70% of them civilians) have been killed in the military campaign that Israel launched in response to the deaths of more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the attack on Hamas in kibbutzim, cities, a music festival and in several military bases near the border.

The possibilities of a ground offensive multiplied this Saturday at noon when the Army sent this warning in leaflets and other media: “For residents of the northern Strip and Gaza City, this is an urgent warning: temporarily evacuate to the south for your safety. “Hamas has placed military facilities and forces in civilian areas and is using them.”

Dozens of Palestinians look at the remains of a destroyed building in Gaza City. MOHAMMED ABED AFP

Israel released the recording of the interrogation of one of the participants of the 7-0 in which he admits that hospitals, including Al Shifa, are used by the armed wing of Hamas to hide. This one denies it. Israel shared information in this regard with the US and is putting pressure on the leadership of Shifa, where some 30,000 Palestinians are also hiding in search of refuge, to evacuate an area that could be the scene of fighting.. In a telephone conversation with Gallant, the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, reiterated his support for the war against Hamas and the release of hostages and stressed the importance of protecting civilians and guaranteeing humanitarian aid in Gaza.

In contrast to the two previous incursions, the one that began this Friday kept the Infantry, Engineering and Artillery forces in northern Gaza after clashes with militiamen in the northern Bet Janun and the central Bureij. According to Israeli media, at least 50 militants were killed.

Except for some interventions from land and sea, the operation was carried out to date by fighters, drones and helicopters.. They were the ones who, for example, reached yesterday the head of the Hamas air unit, Asem Abu Rakaba, whom Israeli Intelligence accuses of being responsible for the drones and paragliders on October 7, and the commander of the Naval Force of Gaza, Ratib Abu Tzahiban, mastermind of the recent foiled plan for the infiltration of commandos on Zikim Beach.

Israel believes that the rhetoric about the ground offensive, the widespread images of tanks in Gaza territory and the increase in aerial fire have a psychological effect both in causing Gazans to abandon their homes and take refuge in the South and in causing Hamas to release the kidnapped. But they also influenced their families, worried that the path to ending Hamas would end the lives of their loved ones.. “It has been the worst of all possible nights. “Every minute seems like an eternity,” the committee said, demanding that their freedom be Israel's number one priority.. The fear is evident: many of the targets attacked are underground, since it is suspected that hostages are found in the alternative underground city created by Hamas in Gaza.

The efforts for his release, especially in the case of foreigners and 30 children, are marked by leaks, messages in the sphere of psychological warfare and statements such as that of the spokesman for the armed wing, Abu Oveida, who this Saturday conditioned him to that Israeli prisons be “completely” emptied of Palestinian prisoners.

Two Israelis take refuge in Tel Aviv while air raid sirens sound. AHMAD GHARABLI AFP

Musa Abu Marzuk, who was part of the Hamas delegation visiting Moscow, revealed that the Russian Foreign Ministry presented him with a list of eight Israelis with Russian nationality who could be in their hands.. “We are looking for them to free them, we see Russia as a close friend,” he commented on behalf of a group that this Saturday claimed responsibility for the firing of projectiles against Tel Aviv and the southern area around the Dimona nuclear power plant and denounced, like others Arab countries, “war crimes against Gaza.

Egypt warned Israel that a ground offensive will cause “serious dangers and unprecedented humanitarian and security consequences”. Cairo opens the Rafah border crossing for the entry of humanitarian aid, which Israel plans to allow to increase to about 80 trucks in the coming days as the incursion deepens, but not for the departure of several thousand foreigners or dual nationals of a strip turned into hell. The intensity of the Israeli bombings has no origin in these lands. After the bloodiest attack in the history of Israel, Haaretz newspaper analyst Amos Harel wrote that “the population of two million inhabitants is going to suffer greatly due to the action led by the dictatorial regime in the Strip, which at the same time “it seems to have no less popular support.”

Black Saturday violently interrupted the accelerated process for the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia within the framework of the agreement that the United States was forging.. Riyadh condemned Israeli attacks and opposed vast ground offensive. Although far from the cameras, Riyadh wants the defeat of Hamas, which it considers another arm of Iran. Now, the toll of deaths and destruction in Gaza leaves him no choice but to align himself with the anti-Israel Arab and Muslim front.

The atmosphere in Acapulco after the passage of Hurricane Otis is one of desperation and anarchy. More than a million people have been trying to survive the catastrophe for five days without having guaranteed supplies of water, electricity, internet, gasoline or basic products.. The authorities' poor response has unleashed a wave of looting in businesses, while around 100,000 tourists are still trying to escape a city plunged into chaos.. In the absence of an official balance sheet of damages, the tourism sector assumes that the spill will be multimillion-dollar and that the idyllic postcards of sun and beach will take a long time to recover.

The vast majority of hotels located on the beachfront look like they have suffered a bombing: their windows and balconies are broken and the common areas are littered with debris.. Jorge Laurel, owner of the Suites Jazmín hotel, acknowledges to EL MUNDO that “it is something unprecedented, it is a catastrophic and devastating state that will take a long time to recover.”. Just behind the hotel zone is the Icacos neighborhood, one of the most humble and hit by the storm, whose simple plywood houses could not withstand the wind gusts of 330 kilometers per hour.. Entering its streets involves avoiding a labyrinth of obstacles of fallen trees and electricity poles that the neighbors themselves try to clear.. At the top of the neighborhood, the Bautista family stands guard in front of the rubble of Aunt Luciene's house, where the bodies of her tenant and the caretaker who took care of her lie.

UNCOLLECTED CORPSES

“The bodies are rotting, the neighbors complain about the smell and no one comes to help us. The Prosecutor's Office asked me to buy plastic tarps because they have no more body bags left,” Alba Bautista, the victim's niece, tells this newspaper.. Her aunt, blind and with reduced mobility, and her 33-year-old caregiver did not want to take shelter when the hurricane hit and a huge tree reduced their home to rubble.. Her niece Alba admits that “it caught us off guard; the wind made the floor and walls shake. “It wasn't the classic sound of a hurricane, it was like the roar of a beast.”

A young man poses at Walmart as the shopping center is looted behind him. Q. S. EITHER.

Luciene's death especially affected the only son who lived with her, who has a disability and refuses to leave his mother's body.. Her other two daughters live abroad and received the sad news through a voicemail message.. “The authorities were overwhelmed and are hiding the truth. “They are not the dead that they say, there are many more, but they do not want to recognize it,” Alba denounces.. The number of victims offered by the Mexican Government remained unchanged from Wednesday until yesterday (when the dead rose from 27 to 39 and the missing from four to 10). Everyone assumes it will continue to increase in the coming days.

Since the passing of Otis, money has ceased to have value in Acapulco. What good is it if the lack of electricity prevents businesses from operating normally? Due to the lack of supplies or support from the authorities, many residents have been forced to loot businesses.. The majority take essential products, although there are also those who take advantage of the chaos to steal appliances, motorcycles or televisions.. Before the undaunted gaze of the military, hundreds of people enter the large stores to take what they can.. Lluvia Arias takes beans, corn, cookies and detergent: “We know it's wrong, but it's out of necessity, our children are hungry,” she explains.

Image of the entrance to the Walmart hypermarket in Acapulco, destroyed by Hurricane Otis. Q. S. EITHER.

Many residents are eager to escape from Acapulco, but cannot do so because there is very little fuel available.. Jenni Vizcarra has been waiting in lines for up to six hours at a gas station for several days to take small cans with which to fill the tank of her vehicle: “Acapulco is lost. How are we going to survive without light or water? People are desperate and, when the food supplies run out, this is going to be hell. “We lost everything, so we are going to start from scratch because it is no longer possible here.”

Less than a week has passed since the historic milestone of the Venezuelan primaries when the great winner of those elections, María Corina Machado, established as leader of the opposition, faces her first great test. Tarek William Saab, Chavista prosecutor, has summoned for this Monday, as investigators, the organizers of the elections, nearly fifty jurists and professors responsible for the self-managed democratic feat.. At the head Jesús María Casal, president of the National Primary Commission (CNP) and right-wing dean of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, today converted into a popular hero.

Among those persecuted by the revolution are also Mildred Camero, vice president of the CNP, and Roberto Abdul, director of the Súmate organization, which provided technical assistance to the process.. The heads of the different regional boards will appear alongside them..

The accusation orchestrated by the revolutionary Public Ministry weighs against all of them, which seeks to accuse them of crimes of usurpation of functions, identity theft, money laundering and association to commit a crime.

“Whatever (the summons) arrives, I'll go,” Camero responded after hearing the news..

The Chavista attack to try to mitigate the political phenomenon born after the citizen feat last Sunday immediately provoked national and international solidarity with these jurists. Members of civil society have called to accompany those investigated before the Prosecutor's Office. At the moment it is not public what strategy Machado will adopt, who received the credential as winner of the primaries from the CNP last Thursday..

“I condemn the harassment of the regime. Venezuela must vote in 2024 without disqualifications or persecutions and with strict compliance with what was agreed in Barbados,” said Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS)..

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) rejected the criminal investigation against the organizers to insist that “the State must provide guarantees for political participation”. The United Nations has also called on Maduro to respect the political rights of Venezuelans..

In the Barbados Accords, signed last week between the Government and the opposition with the auspices of the United States, the right of each political actor to select a candidate for the presidential elections “freely and in accordance with their internal mechanisms” is established.. One of Washington's demands to Nicolás Maduro was that the organization of the first be allowed, which always had a sword of Damocles on it..

The CNP even requested technical assistance from the National Electoral Council (CNE), but it only responded months later and when the process was almost finished.. None of the 10 political organizations that participated in the primaries presented complaints about irregularities or anomalies.

The maneuvers of the Bolivarian power to try to reduce the impact of Hurricane Machado, which obtained almost 93% of the votes in ballot boxes that were filled with 2.4 million ballots, have not only focused on judicial threats against jurists. Chavismo has also called a referendum for December 3 in which it will ask Venezuelans to speak out on the Venezuelan identity of Essequibo, a territory in dispute with Guyana, something on which the entire country agrees..

Maduro also called a false Peace Conference to surround himself with collaborators and friendly businessmen and to accuse the opposition of mounting a strategy of violence.. His Government has also expressly launched a Great Venezuela Women Mission, to simulate a feminist profile in its social policies, by having a female unitary candidate in front of it.

“Until now, the only thing that Madurismo is achieving is showing and confirming to Venezuelans and the international community why so many people voted in the opposition primaries. There is a country desperate to democratically emerge from this madness,” concluded the writer Alberto Tyszka barrier.

The Iranian human rights group Hengaw announced this Saturday the death of Armita Garawand, the 16-year-old girl who fell into a coma earlier this month, after allegedly being attacked by the country's moral police, who wanted to detain her for not wearing a veil.. The minor had been brain dead for several days in a hospital in Tehran, guarded by a strong police deployment that prevented the visit of family, friends and journalists.. The Iranian authorities have tried to reduce the media focus on the case, due to its parallels with the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil correctly.

Amini's death just over a year ago sparked massive protests across the country, demanding more rights for women and an end to the ayatollah regime.. “Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago, after intensive medical treatment and after 28 days in intensive care,” Hengaw announced in a statement.. “The authorities are preventing the delivery of Armita Garawand's body to her family,” the note denounces.

Garawand's arrest is full of controversy, as several versions circulate about what caused the brain contusion that led to her coma.. The authorities insist that the minor fainted due to a “pressure drop” in the Tehran subway and hit her head when she fell unconscious.. They even published images from subway security cameras, where several police officers can be seen removing a fainted Garawand from the car.

“He suffered a fall that caused brain damage, followed by seizures, a decrease in oxygen to the brain after a sudden drop in blood pressure,” Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.. However, the young woman's close circle and rights groups claim that the young woman was left in a coma due to a police attack during an attempted arrest.. The minor had no health problems before admission and was very athletic, according to what her friends told opposition media.. Furthermore, the authorities never published the complete video from the security cameras, only the young woman's entry to the subway stop and her exit in the arms of the police.. A photograph leaked to the media shows Garawand admitted to the hospital, with a severe bruise on her head and her arms full of bandages.. During his stay at the health center, several friends in his closest circle and family members received pressure from the Iranian authorities to change their version of what happened, according to human rights groups..

His mother, Shahin Ahmadi, was held in police custody for a day and was forced to sign a document, the content of which has not been revealed to the media.. The authorities have at all times prevented his family from visiting the hospital.. Given the opacity of the chaos, the rights group Hengaw asked that an analysis by Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross be allowed to determine the state of health of the young woman and what caused her coma.. Your request was denied. A journalist was also detained when she tried to enter the hospital to report on the case.

The news coincides with the sentencing to seven years in prison “for cooperating with a government hostile to Iran” of Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, the two journalists who revealed the police aggression against Mahsa Jina Amini. Her death put the spotlight on institutional violence against women who do not comply with the dress code, which forces them to cover their hair in public spaces.. Amini's death sparked massive protests across the country. The regime responded to the street proclamations with great brutality. Human rights groups have counted at least 500 deaths in protests at the hands of authorities and thousands of people have been injured. At least 20,000 Iranians have been arrested and harassment, torture and rape in prison have been reported. Added to this is the tightening of the veil law, which now punishes women who violate the dress code with up to ten years in prison.