Manuel Muñiz, who was Secretary of State for Global Spain between 2020 and 2021, when Arancha González Laya was Minister of Foreign Affairs, has been the president of the Association of Professional Schools of Foreign Policy (APSIA) since May.

In China they realized they had a major problem with child trafficking in the 1980s.. The introduction of the one-child policy increased the supply of children sold on the street because their parents could not afford the fine of skipping family planning fees.. Or simply because, in a society that gave absolute priority to men, the person born was a girl and her parents decided to get rid of her.

The agencies that trafficked babies, at first, went door to door buying children. When they couldn't find them, they stole them directly.. Then, they began to move through cyberspace, opening clandestine adoption groups within forums and many of the country's largest social media platforms.. By simply filtering the searches with words like “adopt”, some results already appeared.

A couple of years ago, Sixth Tone, a Shanghai newspaper, contacted several sellers who offered babies for 90,000 yuan, which in exchange is around 12,000 euros.. “Our investigation revealed how China's major internet companies have become conduits for illicit adoption practices that put children at risk of abuse,” the post read.

In QQ, a messaging application that belongs to Tencent, one of the Chinese technological titans, filtering the search with “birth certificate”, there are still some lists with agents who offer help to clients to obtain the necessary documents and legally become parents of a child. That is, they get birth certificates signed by doctors. This is part of a wide network that has been in the news in recent years for arrests of doctors and public officials. The latest plot was uncovered a few days ago.

In Hubei, a province in central China, the director of Xiangyang Hospital, Ye Youzhi, was arrested for selling falsified birth certificates and child vaccination records to baby trafficking agencies.. The case was uncovered thanks to the complaint of an activist named Shangguan Zhengyi, who said that he had been undercover as a hospital worker for a year.. Shangguan published a series of records on social media linking Ye to these certificates, which were sold for around 13,000 euros each.

“The director collaborated with several intermediaries and used social media platforms. Clients only needed to provide their personal information and pay the money they were asked to obtain a complete set of authentic records created by the hospital, including prenatal care, hospitalization, delivery and discharge,” says Shangguan, who says other workers at the center also commissions were received for providing these certificates.

“They functioned like a mafia, with agencies that sold newborn babies throughout the country. Normally, they buy them directly from the parents. Although they also have connections with other hospitals that lie to mothers telling them that their children have been stillborn,” he says.

On Monday, the police arrested six other people related to a plot that spreads through a dozen provinces throughout the country.. Investigators are also connecting this case to a booming underground market for surrogacy, which is illegal in China and which uses these fake birth certificates to regulate the status of babies.

The last time the journalist met Naim Qassem was 16 years ago. So, to talk to Hezbollah's number two, you had to go through an exhaustive search and a whole series of detours aboard a van with the windows covered.

After almost three weeks of ground incursion and with a large part of the northern Gaza Strip under its control, the Israeli Army launched an operation last morning in a part of the Al Shifa Hospital complex.. He points out that it is part of the search for “terrorist infrastructure” and information on those kidnapped in the Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel.

Later in the day, the Army has assured that in its raid it has found “an operations center” with “ammunition, weapons and military equipment” of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the hospital center.

“We have proof that the hospital was being used for military and terrorist purposes, contrary to international law,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari told the press.

“The precise and selective mission against Hamas, initiated based on intelligence information and an operational need, is still underway,” Israel said in the morning, after its soldiers, accompanied by medical teams, entered an area – the basement and surroundings – of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The government of the fundamentalist group that has controlled the Palestinian enclave since 2007 denies Israeli accusations that Al Shifa, and especially its subsoil connected to the network of tunnels, is one of the main command centers of its armed wing.. “The occupation army's assault on the Al Shifa medical complex is a war crime, a moral crime and a crime against humanity,” denounces Hamas.

Before the military entry into the Al Shifa Hospital – indicates the Army – its forces “found explosive devices and terrorist cells, and a confrontation began in which terrorists died.”. Various Israeli media speak of five militiamen killed in the fighting in that area of Gaza City, citing Army sources.. According to Israel, so far there has been no friction between its soldiers and the hospital's medical staff and patients.

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Those responsible for the Hamas Ministry of Health and the hospital were notified in advance (around 30 minutes) by the Army.. It is believed that around 1,000 people, including patients, injured people and staff, were inside the health center last night.. In recent days, the Al Shifa management reported the death of several newborn babies due to lack of fuel and warned that the lives of more than 30 premature babies are in danger.

“Incubators, baby food and medical supplies brought by Army tanks have successfully arrived at Al Shifa Hospital. “Our medical teams and Arabic-speaking soldiers are on the ground to ensure these supplies reach those who need them,” the Army said.. The Minister of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Dr Mai Al-Kaila, denounces the military operation, also condemned by Jordan, and warns that it could have “catastrophic consequences” for medical personnel and patients.

A doctor from Al Shifa told Reuters in the morning that gunshots outside the complex forced staff to stay away from the windows for their safety while a Palestinian journalist pointed out the presence of Israeli military vehicles in the center's courtyard.

The Army considers that the presence of weapons and militiamen in the area closest to the health center is another indication of the importance that its armed wing attaches to it.. However, in Israel they are aware that it is unlikely to find Hamas leaders in the health center after several weeks of warning with an operation in Al Shifa and several days of siege with their tanks that was accompanied by combat with militiamen.

What they do not doubt, nor does the US point out, is that Al Shifa has been used all these years by Hamas as one of its most important and protected centers and bases, also being a refuge for part of the members of the armed wing who participated in the armed attack. 40 days ago.

Israel hopes that the operation in Al Shifa, as already occurred in the Rantisi Hospital, can help in the two missions declared by the cabinet in the massive military offensive by land, air and sea in response to 7-0: ending the military infrastructure and the Hamas Government in Gaza and free the 239 kidnapped in the hands of the Yahia Sinwar group and Islamic Jihad.

Hours after the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has considered illegal the plan to deport immigrants to Rwanda pending their asylum application, Rishi Sunak has announced the promotion of an emergency law in Parliament to prevent “a foreign court from block flights (with deported immigrants) to Rwanda”.

The 'premier' has warned that the same legislation will declare Rwanda as “a safe country” and that the United Kingdom will sign a new treaty with Kigali to support its plans.. Sunak has thus tried to quell the growing insurrection in his own ranks after the court decision.

Dozens of 'Tory' deputies, led by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, immediately challenged the 'premier' and directly demanded the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of 1950, signed by 47 countries. .

The five judges of the Supreme Court have questioned Rwanda's human rights record and have determined that the African country does not have “an adequate system to process asylum claims” and that, therefore, there is a risk of ill-treatment and repatriation of immigrants to their countries of origin, such as Syria or Afghanistan.

Before the announcement of the law, in an intervention in Parliament, Sunak assured that despite the setback suffered by the Government, the Supreme Court has implicitly recognized that “the principle of deporting immigrants is legal”. The prime minister has announced that his Government will sign a new treaty with Rwanda and will introduce the necessary changes to adapt national legislation and move forward with its plans.

“My commitment to stopping the boats (in the English Channel) is unbreakable,” stressed Sunak, who is however not willing to adopt the “nuclear option”, the exit from the ECHR, which his hard-wing deputies demand.

A cost of 160 million euros

The leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer, has recalled how the 'Rwanda plan' has cost the British the equivalent of 160 million euros to date and accused Sunak of not having a 'plan B' ready.

Protest against the Government at the Supreme Court, in London. EFE

The same accusation has been leveled against Sunak by Suella Braverman, dismissed on Monday in the Government crisis. The former Secretary of the Interior has joined her voice with those of the New Conservatives group, which demands the introduction of an emergency law to “immediately abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.”

“We are facing an absolutely existential decision for the future of the party,” warned New Conservatives co-founder Danny Kruger.. Former Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has joined the rebel Tories and described Braverman's dismissal and the decision not to go further to defend the 'Rwanda plan' as “a serious mistake”.

More than 45,000 immigrants crossed the English Channel in boats in 2022, the year in which Boris Johnson's Government had to cancel 'in extremis' the departure of the first plane heading to Rwanda with immigrants after the intervention of the European Court of Rights Humans.

The number of crossings has dropped this year to more than 25,000, mainly due to greater collaboration from the French authorities and the agreement with Albania to repatriate its citizens who arrive illegally on British shores.. In recent weeks, and despite the bad weather, crossings have increased and on Sunday 650 immigrants arrived in boats.

Several non-governmental organizations presented a first legal claim against the British Government in 2022 to stop deportations to Rwanda, paralyzed since then.. The British Government planned to charter the first plane with immigrants to Kigali before Christmas, in the event of having won the legal battle before the Supreme Court.