Port of Call
NEED TO KNOW
Port of Call
LATIN AMERICA
American Gen. Laura Richardson, who oversees US military operations in Latin America, recently told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the US needs a new approach to counter Russian and Chinese – especially Chinese – influence in the region.
Richardson called on American policymakers to launch an economic aid program for Latin America akin to the Marshall Plan for Europe that was implemented after World War II, reported bne IntelliNews. This program should be designed, Richardson said, to match Russia and China’s closer trade and diplomatic ties in “America’s backyard.”
Richardson’s view was also nuanced. While she said Russia’s operations in Cuba, Venezuela, and elsewhere are important, she believes China especially is a new, major player whose entrance is already driving changes in trade and diplomacy in the region.
In a recent story in the Economist describing China’s expanding influence in Latin America, for example, the writer led with a description of the new 20,000-foot-long breakwater for the new port under construction in Chancay on the Pacific Coast of Peru. The Chinese company Cosco built the port – with $1.3 billion already invested in it – around 40 miles north of the capital of Lima. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend the facility’s inauguration in November.
The US, alarmed by the Peruvian port venture, is now competing with China to develop Punta Arenas, a Chilean port that could serve as a perfect stop for ships sailing in growing trading networks traversing the southern hemisphere, wrote Americas Quarterly. Low water levels in the Panama Canal, Middle Eastern wars and radical militants and also pirates targeting shipping lanes, and more trade in commodities like green hydrogen have increased merchant traffic in the Strait of Magellan by 83 percent compared with 2021, for instance.
Besides political and business concerns, critics like US Army War College political scientist R. Evan Ellis fear China will seek to export its authoritarianism to Latin America as it builds this critical infrastructure. “China is increasingly active in Latin America and other parts of the world in conducting training programs in China for professionals from the region,” Ellis noted in the Diplomat. “Problematically, these trainings are rife with authoritarian content and narratives.”
Chinese officials undoubtedly have tried to strongarm local leaders into adopting pro-China policies, like banning coffee imports from Guatemala due to the country’s recognition of Taiwan’s independence, as Reuters explained. Moves like these have angered Latin American leaders, including Brazilian fashion retailers who resent losing business to cheap Chinese textiles, added Deutsche Welle.
However, Latin Americans keep accepting Chinese cash and investment. Trade between the two sides grew to $315 billion in 2020 compared with $12 billion in 2000. That number is likely to increase to $700 billion through the next decade, according to the Miami Herald.
The business of international relations is business, analysts say, and in this region, that trade is booming.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
On All Fronts
ISRAEL/ PALESTINE
Fears of a Middle Eastern conflict widening flared over the weekend after a deadly rocket attack on a Druze village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, and an escalation in strikes by both Israel and Hezbollah, Axios reported.
On Saturday, a rocket struck a soccer field in the village of Majdal Shams, killing at least 12 children and wounding 30 others. Israel and the United States accused the Lebanon-based Hezbollah for the attack, with Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari saying the rocket used was an Iranian-made Falaq-1, which is exclusive to the armed group.
Hezbollah strongly denied responsibility. Lebanese acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the violence against civilians and called for an immediate halt to hostilities.
Israel responded to the attack Sunday by launching retaliatory airstrikes on Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon that they said included weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure.
Saturday’s attack on Majdal Shams came as Israel and Hezbollah launched a series of strikes against each other, in what US officials described as a day of “almost all-out war,” according to CBS News.
The two sides have traded near daily fire since Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7. At the time, Hamas and its allies launched a surprise assault that killed around 1,200 people and saw more 250 others taken hostage.
The ongoing war in Gaza has resulted in a humanitarian crisis that has displaced more than 80 percent of the territory’s population and killed more than 39,000 people, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled strip.
The conflict has also piled domestic and international pressure on Israel and its leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Friday, the United Kingdom’s Labour-led government reversed the country’s opposition to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Politico added.
A spokesperson for new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer emphasized the importance of the rule of law and the independence of courts while explaining the country’s reversal. The official added that “it is for the courts and prosecutor to decide and that’s why we’ve not taken forward plans put forward by the previous government.”
In May, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Gaza conflict.
The previous Conservative government had requested written observations from the ICC on whether it could exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, arguing that the Palestinian Authority cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction.
The UK’s decision came shortly after Australia and Japan imposed a series of sanctions on Israeli settlers for their involvement in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
That followed a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) earlier this month that declared Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories illegal under international law.
Israel has rejected the ICJ’s opinion as biased and not legally binding.
Getting a Scolding
CANADA
Canada’s supreme court ruled this week that treaties signed more than 170 years ago between British colonial settlers and Indigenous groups have not been honored by successive Canadian governments, depriving First Nations of fair compensation for resource revenue, the Washington Post reported.
The case centers on the Robinson Treaties signed in 1850 between the Crown and the Anishinaabe people of Lake Huron and Lake Superior – more than a decade before Canada confederated.
The agreements included an annual payment with a clause for potential increases if land resources produced sufficient revenue. During the proceedings, the Canadian government said that it owed the Indigenous groups $1.3 billion, but economist Joseph Stiglitz – who was called to testify – estimated the figure to be around $90 billion.
In its Friday ruling, the court chided Canada’s “longstanding and egregious” breach of the treaties, highlighting the Crown’s unreliability and lack of trustworthiness as a treaty partner.
The top court found that the treaty’s beneficiaries have continued to receive an annual payment of less than $3 per person since 1875, an amount deemed “shocking” and a “mockery” of the treaty’s intended promise.
It ordered the Canadian government to negotiate compensation owed to the Anishinaabe people, who, it said, have been left in poverty because of broken pledges.
The court emphasized that historical treaties must be interpreted considering both their wording and the historical and cultural context, reflecting how each party would have understood the agreements at the time.
Observers explained that the verdict could significantly impact how resource revenues, such as from mining and forestry, are shared with Indigenous communities and influence the role of courts in reconciliation efforts between First Nations and the Canadian government.
Indigenous groups welcomed the decision with representatives hoping for future community benefits.
The ruling does not award an immediate settlement but mandates a six-month period for Ontario to propose a new settlement. The court warned it would intervene if a fair compensation agreement is not reached, according to the Guardian.
No One Left Behind
TURKEY
Thousands of people protested in Istanbul this week against a new bill that officials say is aimed at reducing the numbers of stray dogs in Turkey, but that animal welfare groups fear could lead to mass culling across the country, Euronews reported.
Earlier this month, a parliamentary committee approved proposed legislation that would require municipalities to collect stray dogs and house them in shelters where they would be neutered and spayed. Canines that are in pain, terminally ill or pose health risks to humans are to be euthanized.
The bill also requires local governments to build dog shelters or improve conditions in existing ones by 2028. Officials who fail to fulfill their responsibilities in controlling strays could face up to two years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, people who abandon pets could face fines of up to $1,800, Sky News noted.
But since the bill was unveiled, nearly daily demonstrations have taken place against it. Critics and animal rights advocates fear that some municipalities will use the bill as a pretext to kill dogs instead of allocating resources to shelter them.
They also warned that shelters would eventually become overcrowded and neglected, leaving animals in poor conditions.
The government denies that the bill would lead to widespread culling, with the justice minister stating that anyone killing strays “for no reason” would be punished.
The current legislation is a watered-down version of an initial proposal that called for strays to be rounded up, housed in shelters and euthanized if not adopted within 30 days.
Turkish officials estimate that around four million stray dogs roam the country’s streets and rural areas.
Despite existing legislation requiring that stray dogs be caught, neutered, and returned to their original locations, poor implementation of the laws has caused the feral dog population to grow significantly.
The government vowed to tackle the stray problem after a child was severely injured by dogs in the capital Ankara earlier this year.
DISCOVERIES
Hunting the First
There weren’t always billions of humans and trillions of plants, animals and fungi thriving on Earth, which implies that going far enough up the genealogical tree, one could find the ancestor of all living things.
The search for what scientists call the “last universal common ancestor” (LUCA) has been the subject of debate among researchers over what it was, and when it emerged.
Now, a team of scientists from the University of Bristol has established that the LUCA could be at least 4.2 billion years old, thus appearing at the very early stages of our planet’s existence – Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.
“We did not expect LUCA to be so old, within just hundreds of millions of years of Earth’s formation,” said study co-author Sandra Alvarez-Carretero.
Back then, Earth was still a toxic environment. Oxygen only emerged 3 billion years ago, but life was already possible before that, as modern scientists believe our planet was stable enough.
The LUCA gave us and our Earth-mates the same amino acids to build proteins, the same energy currency, ATP, and the fact of using DNA to store information. Carretero and her colleagues counted the number of mutations in species to determine when our more recent ancestors diverged from LUCA.
Then, thanks to complex evolutionary modeling, the researchers found that LUCA was probably a prokaryote – a single-celled organism without a nucleus.
“(The) LUCA was a complex organism, not too different from modern prokaryotes,” said co-author Davide Pisani. It also had an early immune system to combat viruses.
The LUCA, in fact, evolved in an environment full of life: Its waste could have fed other lifeforms.
This “demonstrates just how quickly an ecosystem was established on early Earth,” said co-author Philip Donoghue. “This suggests that life may be flourishing on Earth-like biospheres elsewhere in the Universe.”
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