The Chinese team ranked first in its group, which also included Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Vietnam, during the semi-finals that concluded at the Alabino training ground in the Moscow region.
The Chinese team will compete with groups from Russia, Belarus and Uzbekistan in the final contest on Saturday.
The International Army Games, initiated by the Russian Defense Ministry, have served as an international platform for militaries to exchange experience and strengthen cooperation.
Itaru Nakamura, commissioner general of the National Police Agency (NPA), made his announcement following the release of a review of security at the time Abe was fatally shot while delivering a street speech during an election campaign.
“The National Police Agency believes it is necessary to steadily implement measures based on the new security requirements under a new system to prevent such an incident from happening again,” Nakamura told a press conference.
“Today, I conveyed to the National Public Safety Commission my intention to resign, in an effort to revamp personnel affairs,” he said, with his resignation likely to be approved at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
The results of the review in the wake of Abe’s assassination revealed the police’s failure to protect the former leader.
It detailed serious flaws in security plans, insufficient command and communication at the scene, and a failure to notice the gunman approaching Abe.
Abe delivered a stump speech in the western city of Nara on July 8 ahead of an upper house election. A lone assailant was able to approach Abe with a homemade gun and fire two shots from behind Abe with his security details unable to respond in time to prevent or limit the attack.
At the time of the shooting, one policeman from the Tokyo metropolitan police force and a few local police officers were close to Abe at the time of the shooting.
Numerous security experts here have attested the attack could have been prevented or at least not resulted in Abe being fatally wounded, had his security details acted in unison to both suppress the attacker whilst simultaneously shielding and moving Abe out of the line of fire.
According to the NPA, one of the biggest errors in security measures at the time of the shooting involved a police officer from Nara changing his position during Abe’s speech.
He moved from outside a small area of guardrails surrounding Abe where he was covering the former leader’s back, to inside the rails where the policeman then turned his back to the crowd, the agency said.
The local police officer did not inform his team leader or other officers of his movements, said the NPA.
On Thursday, the head of the Nara Prefectural Police, Tomoaki Onizuka, also announced his intention to step down.
More than 70 people died and over 82,000 houses were damaged over the past 24 hours in various rain-related incidents in parts of the country, according to the NDMA statistics.
As the country struggles to cope with the aftermath of torrential rains that triggered massive floods, Pakistan urged the international community to help with relief efforts.
Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said that the current climate catastrophe needs immediate International and national mobilization of humanitarian efforts, not just in the form of food, shelter and basic survival amenities, but also in rescue efforts.
“Given the scale of the disaster, there is no question of the provinces or even Islamabad being able to cope with this magnitude of climate catastrophe on their own. Lives are at risk, and thousands are homeless. It is important that international partners mobilize assistance,” the minister said.
The southern Sindh province remained one of the worst-hit regions, where 293 people died in different rain-related incidents and subsequent flooding, followed by 230 in the southwestern Balochistan province, said the NDMA.
The total fatalities also included 169 reported in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and 164 in the eastern Punjab province.
Floods have also damaged over 495,000 houses across Pakistan apart from washing away roads and damaging bridges since mid-June, according to the NDMA.
Considering the prediction of more rains in the country, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed the concerned authorities to expedite rescue and relief operations in flood-affected areas.
“The rehabilitation in the calamity-hit areas is a gigantic task … This is possible only through collective efforts,” Sharif said.
Meanwhile, local authorities along with the Pakistani army are continuing with rescue and relief activities, and sending food items, tents, medicines, and other essential items to almost all the flood-hit areas in the South Asian country.
Talking to Xinhua, Naseer Ibraheem, a volunteer for a local non-governmental organization in the southern Badin district, said that the recent spell of heavy rains has caused unprecedented destruction in the district and the government has declared it a calamity-hit area.
“I have never seen such damage caused by rains in the past. It has rained many folds more in Sindh. People are forced to live in makeshift camps and tents as they have lost their houses to heavy downpours and floods,” Ibraheem said.
“Our organization, like several others in the area, is providing food, tents and cash money to help stranded people … I cannot describe how unfortunate the situation is for them … they have lost almost everything they had to rains and floods. They need our help,” he added.
In its August analytical report, the European Drought Observatory (EDO) said that some 47 percent of Europe is under warning conditions due to a severe lack of soil moisture.
Another 17 percent of countries are in alert conditions.
“The severe drought affecting many regions of Europe since the beginning of the year has been further expanding and worsening as of early August,” the report said, adding that the western Europe-Mediterranean region is likely to experience warmer and drier than usual conditions until November.
The drought has disrupted inland shipping and electricity production, and reduced the yields of certain crops, it said.
The current drought appears to be the worst in at least 500 years, assuming final data at the end of the season confirm the preliminary assessment, the European Commission said in a statement.
Summer crops have suffered, with 2022 yields of grain maize set to be 16 percent below the average of the previous five years and soybean and sunflowers yields are set to decrease by 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Hydropower generation has also suffered a hit, with further impact on other power producers due to a shortage of water to feed cooling systems.
Low water levels have hampered inland shipping along the river Rhine and elsewhere, with reduced shipping loads affecting coal and oil transport.
Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said: “The combination of a severe drought and heat waves has created unprecedented stress on water levels in the entire EU. We are currently noticing a wildfires season sensibly above the average and an important impact on crops production. Climate change is undoubtedly more noticeable every year.”
Agreement is urgently needed to re-establish the Zaporizhzhia plant as purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area, she told the Security Council in a briefing.
“We must be clear that any potential damage to the plant, or any other nuclear facilities in Ukraine, leading to a possible nuclear incident would have catastrophic consequences, not only for the immediate vicinity, but for the region and beyond,” she warned.
“At this moment, it is imperative that we receive the expressed commitment of the parties to stop any military activities around the plant to enable its continued safe and secure operations,” she said. “To paraphrase the (UN) secretary-general’s blunt warning, any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicidal.”
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant continues to be operated by Ukrainian technical personnel but has been under the control of Russian military forces since early March. In early August, disturbing reports of an escalation of shelling around the plant began to emerge, said DiCarlo.
“Regrettably, despite numerous calls and appeals, instead of de-escalation, we continue to see almost daily reports of alarming incidents involving the plant,” she said. “If such incidents continue to escalate, we could face a disaster.”
The United Nations continues to fully support the critical work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its efforts to ensure the safe operation of Zaporizhzhia and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine, said DiCarlo.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday renewed his request to send a mission to carry out essential safety, security and safeguards activities at the site. Preparations for the mission are proceeding, and the IAEA is in active consultations with all parties. The United Nations welcomes Ukraine’s and Russia’s recent statements indicating support for such a mission, she said.
“In close contact with the IAEA, the UN has assessed that we have the logistics and security capacity in Ukraine to support any IAEA mission to the plant from Kiev, provided Ukraine and Russia agree. We once again urge the parties to provide the IAEA mission with immediate, secure and unfettered access to the site,” she said.
According to the Cabinet Secretariat, Kishida developed symptoms such as a slight fever and cough on Saturday evening. The result of a PCR test underwent on Sunday confirmed that Kishida was infected with the novel coronavirus.
Kishida was due to restart work on Monday after taking a week-long summer vacation with his family.
Kishida, now recuperating at his official residence, is able to continue his duties but will cancel a planned trip to Tunisia next weekend, the country’s public broadcaster NHK reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the conference, which was read out by Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.
Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, also delivered remarks via video link.
She said the Chinese government attaches great importance to vocational education and has built the world’s largest vocational education system, which not only provides important support for high-quality development, but also meets the growth needs of different students.
China is ready to work with the international community to build a multi-tiered and wide-ranging cooperation platform, increase support for vocational education in developing countries, and enable people around the world to share the fruits of vocational education development, Sun added.
With the theme of “Vocational and Technical Education Development in the Post-pandemic Era — New Changes, New Ways and New Skills,” the conference was attended both online and offline by heads of international organizations, education ministers of different countries, and foreign diplomatic envoys to China.
Concreting, brick laying and plastering. The robots, capable of doing various kinds of construction and maintenance work, have greatly improved the quality and efficiency of construction.
Up to July 2022, 30 types of the robots with different functions have been put into commercial use in more than 550 projects in 28 provinces and regions across China.
“Their allegation against China is simply untenable,” Wang said in response to the accusation made by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Africa.
Wang said developing countries mainly borrow from commercial and multilateral lenders. According to the World Bank’s International Debt Statistics, by the end of 2020, commercial and multilateral creditors accounted for 40 percent and 34 percent respectively for the public external debt of 82 low-income and lower middle-income countries.
Bilateral official creditors took up 26 percent and China less than 10 percent, said Wang.
He said that, in recent years, developing countries have mainly borrowed their new debts from Western commercial creditors and multilateral institutions. According to World Bank statistics, between 2015 and 2020, commercial, multilateral and bilateral official debts accounted for 42 percent, 35 percent and 23 percent respectively of the 475.2-billion-dollar new public external debt of low-income and lower middle-income countries.
Most of the commercial debts, or 39 percent of the total new debts, are financed by sovereign bonds in the international financial market. A research by Eurodad on 31 key indebted countries found that 95 percent of the countries’ sovereign bonds were held by Western financial institutions, Wang said.
He stressed that the developing countries’ medium- to long-term debt payment mainly flowed to Western commercial creditors and multilateral institutions.
According to World Bank estimates, low-income and lower middle-income countries have to make 940 billion U.S. dollars worth of principal and interest repayments in the next seven years, including 356.6 billion U.S. dollars to Western commercial creditors and 273 billion U.S. dollars to multilateral institutions, 67 percent of the total payments due. Only 14 percent of their total payments, or 130.8 billion U.S. dollars, will go to the Chinese government and commercial institutions.
They will have to pay, more than 300 billion U.S. dollars to sovereign bond holders, most of which are Western financial institutions, who are clearly the biggest source of debt service pressure for the borrowing countries, said Wang.
He said that it is much more expensive to borrow from Western commercial creditors than from China. Take Africa as an example, according to the estimates of the UK’s Debt Justice based on World Bank data, the interest rates of China’s official and commercial loans to African countries are lower than the interest rate (of 5 percent) on commercial loans from other countries. They are also far lower than the interest rates (of 4-10 percent) on the 10-year government bonds, according to the numbers disclosed by the African Development Bank.
Besides, the sovereign loans provided by China come with a fixed interest rate, while Western commercial creditors often apply fluctuating interest rate. As the U.S. dollar enters its rate hike cycle, the debtor countries are facing growing pressure on repayment, Wang said.
The spokesperson pointed out that Western commercial creditors and multilateral institutions have been absent from the global debt relief and service suspension effort.
China has been implementing the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the biggest contributor to the effort. By contrast, Western commercial creditors and multilateral institutions, who hold the biggest share of debts, claimed they need to maintain their credit rating and have thus refused to be part of the effort and failed to make proportionate contributions to relieving the debt burden of developing countries, Wang added.
“When certain politicians and media in the U.S. and some other Western countries hype up the so-called ‘Chinese debt trap’ despite those facts, their real aim is to create a narrative trap to sow discord between China and other developing countries, impede their cooperation and disrupt the growth of developing countries,” Wang said.
“But the developing countries and people with insight from the rest of the international community will not fall for this,” he said.
At the meeting in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, Zelensky hailed the UN’s positive role in resuming grain exports from Ukraine and stressed Kiev’s readiness to guarantee global food security.
Zelensky and Guterres agreed to continue the coordination on the grain initiative implementation and emphasized the importance of increasing the number of vessels exporting foodstuffs from Ukraine.
The parties also talked about the UN’s role in ensuring security at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and stressed the need for the demilitarization of the plant.
Another topic of the discussion was the release of Ukrainian military personnel and medics taken captive during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Guterres arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday. Later on Thursday, Zelensky and Guterres are set to hold a tripartite meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On July 22, Ukraine signed a deal with Türkiye and the UN in Istanbul to resume food and fertilizer shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea. The same agreement was signed by Russia.
Last week, Ukraine and Russia exchanged accusations over a strike on the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is one of the largest atomic power complexes in Europe and generates a quarter of Ukraine’s total electricity.
On Aug. 11, Ukraine called for an international mission under the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), involving UN experts, to visit the plant to assess the threats to nuclear safety.
