Australia has elected a Chinese-speaking prime minister, noted Shanghai’s Guancha. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post headlined that he might “get right with China”.
But Beijing’s Global Times noted that Tuesday’s “Quad summit” will “test the political wisdom of the new Australian prime minister.” Newly elected, he will already participate.
By the Financial Times and others, the leaks about the meeting between the United States, Japan, India and Australia go in the direction of “prioritizing the security agenda” – as defended at the end of the week by Foreign Affairs, from Washington.
The FT headlines since Friday, from anonymous “US officials”, point to alleged expansion in China’s agreements with small Pacific nations, after the Solomon Islands, and the suggested US response to the Quad, of “monitoring China’s fisheries ” in the region.
Guancha reacted with a headline saying it was a “new American excuse” to “pressure” Australia and others against China.
But the Chinese counterattack, in fact, takes place on another front — the trade and financial group Brics, from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In the South China Morning Post, “BRICS members support expansion proposal,” in a joint note on Friday.
The new countries were not nominated, but among those listed, already present in a parallel meeting of foreign ministers, are Argentina, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Thailand and Nigeria.
IN SEARCH OF GAS
The US has also resumed the militarization of Africa, in two New York Times stories: “Biden approves plan to redeploy hundreds of ground forces in Somalia” and “Pentagon appoints commander of US forces in Africa”, who will be “the first black general four marine stars”.
The American escalation on the continent follows the European decision to seek in Africa its alternative to gas from Russia, as South African, Chinese and Russian vehicles had already been reporting.
Unsuccessful in earlier attempts in the Middle East, German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz began an African tour. “In search of gas”, in the headline of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
THE PHOTO
the news agency Reuters dispatched text about the outbreak of monkeypox in Europeans and North Americans, but with a photo of an African, three decades ago.
Among others, a journalists association Africans questioned why the media weren’t using a photo of a European or an American: “Is the media in the business of preserving white purity?”.
Reuters then changed the photo on its website and Reuters itself news reporter recorded the change on social media, but the image continues to be reproduced around the world.
