Although such opinions are not binding, they do carry weight and are often followed by EU judges in their rulings.

In this case, the opinion will feed into a legal battle Google has been waging to overturn the fine the European Commission hit it with in 2017.

The commission determined that Google abused its dominant position by favouring its own Google Shopping service in results from its ubiquitous search engine. 

Google, owned by US tech titan Alphabet, was forced to change how it displays search results.

At the time the fine was a record. But it was overtaken in 2018 by a 4.3-billion-euro penalty Brussels levied on Google for putting restrictions on Android smartphones to boost its internet search business.

Google lost a first round in its challenge over the Google Shopping case when the lower EU General Court in 2021 found against it and upheld the commission’s penalty. 

However, that court did dismiss part of the commission’s case by saying it had not proven that there were anti-competitive effects in the search engine market.

Google then mounted an appeal to the higher EU Court of Justice to try to get the lower court’s decision set aside.

In her opinion, Advocate General Juliane Kokott recommended the Court of Justice’s judges “dismiss the appeal and thus confirm the fine imposed on Google”.

The adviser said Google’s favouritism for its own service over rivals’ constituted “an independent form of abuse” if it gained a competitive advantage, even a potential one.

– Google awaits ruling –

The lower court and the commission “rightly noted” that Google leveraged its dominant position to give “unequal treatment” to competitors, she said.

Google told AFP it would review the legal opinion and await the final ruling by the Luxembourg-based court, which is not expected for months.

“Irrespective of the appeal, we continue to invest in our remedy, which has been working successfully for several years, and will continue to work constructively with the European Commission,” a spokesperson said.

The European Commission has hit several US Big Tech companies with fines in recent years as it seeks to regulate online services and better protect European consumers and firms.

Last year the EU brought in laws, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, that crack down on illegal online content and impose tough new curbs on internet giants.

Google has so far borne the brunt of the European Commission’s antitrust scrutiny, racking up a total of eight billion euros in fines.

It is currently the target of another probe by Brussels, launched in 2021, to see whether it abused its position to favour its online display advertising technology, including on YouTube.

Depending on the outcome, that could result in another massive fine and a requirement that Google change its practices.

Alphabet brought in $76.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter of last year, most of it from online advertising, making $19.7 billion in profit.

In 2022, the tech giant had annual revenue of $282.8 billion.

The post EU legal opinion deals blow to Google on 2.4-bn-euro fine appeared first on Digital Journal.

The strikes on Wednesday evening came as both Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of inflicting dozens of civilian casualties in a sharp escalation of attacks. 

“Thirteen people were injured,” including a Turkish citizen and a Georgian, the prosecutor general’s office said.

“Two missiles hit a hotel in the centre of Kharkiv. There were no military personnel there. Instead, there were 30 civilians,” Mayor Igor Terekhov posted on Telegram.

One of the wounded is in “very serious condition”, he said, adding that “Turkish journalists are among the victims”.

Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said S-300 missiles were fired from the Russian frontier region of Belgorod, adding that a 35-year-old man was hospitalised in serious condition”.

Several other buildings, including two apartment blocks, were also reported damaged in the latest strike. 

“In addition to the hotel, residential buildings were affected — one communal, one private, a car dealership and a manufacturing enterprise,” Mayor Terekhov said.

Located about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the Russian border, Ukraine’s second-largest city has seen regular and often deadly aerial assaults.

Across the border, the Russian defence ministry said it had downed four Ukrainian drones over the Tula, Kaluga and Rostov regions. 

Voronezh region governor Aleksandr Gusev also reported that a Ukrainian drone had hit “the roof of a non-residential building” overnight, although said there was “no harm done”.

The post 13 wounded in Russian strike on hotel in Ukraine appeared first on Digital Journal.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and the island’s security planners run simulated worst-case scenarios constantly to prepare for the day Beijing decides to try and take over.

If China does invade, Taiwanese officials and cybersecurity experts say it will not limit its assaults to security forces and defence infrastructure, but effectively disconnect the island from the world.

Taiwan is facing a persistent threat from stealthy attackers who gain access to computer networks to “sit and wait within the victim’s infrastructure”, said Crystal Tu, a cybersecurity researcher at Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense and Security Research.

They can be highly active during a time of conflict, Tu told AFP, such as a “cyber operation aimed at the disruption of critical infrastructure — including telecommunications, energy and finance sectors”. 

Cyberattacks against Taiwan have ramped up dramatically in the year leading up to the presidential election on Saturday, which China has described as a choice between war and peace for the island’s 23 million people.

Taiwanese authorities have said government agencies face an estimated five million cyberattacks a day.

And the cybersecurity firm Fortinet reported an 80 percent increase in cyber attacks in the first half of 2023 — ranking Taiwan number one in Asia Pacific.

“The cyber operation toward Taiwan never really stops,” said Tu.

Some tactics used against Taiwanese infrastructure have been identified as techniques used by Chinese state-sponsored groups.

Last year, Microsoft flagged the threat from a group named Flax Typhoon that operates out of China and targets Taiwan.

The US tech giant said Flax Typhoon “intends to perform espionage and maintain access” to various Taiwanese organisations for as long as possible.

– Semiconductor hub –

Cyberattackers have not only targeted Taiwan’s government and defence organisations, but also hit its semiconductor industry.

Taiwanese companies are crucial to the supply of chips, the lifeblood of the global economy.

Such is their importance that one former US official said last year that the United States would rather destroy this semiconductor infrastructure than let it fall to invading Chinese forces.

Last year, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which controls more than half of the world’s chip output, reported a data breach at one of its suppliers.

“Taiwan is an important target because it is at the top of the critical high-tech supply chain,” said Fortinet’s Jim Liu.

“Geopolitics and (China-Taiwan) relations could inevitably increase cybersecurity incidents.”

China has increased diplomatic and military pressure on the island since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party became Taiwan’s president.    

She considers Taiwan an independent state and does not accept China’s claim on the island — views shared by Lai Ching-te, the DPP’s presidential candidate.

– Worst-case scenario –

China’s increasing aggression towards Taiwan, including simulated blockades of the island, has fuelled speculation among policymakers about Beijing’s potential timeline — and methods — for an invasion.

In the digital realm, Taiwanese officials say China could go beyond cyberattacks and effectively cut off the island from the rest of the world.

“Because Taiwan is an island, all communication with the outside world relies on undersea cables,” Taiwan’s deputy digital minister Huai-jen Lee told AFP in a recent interview.

“The worst-case scenario is all our undersea cables are cut off.”

To prepare for that, Taiwan is looking to the sky.

Deputy Digital Minister Lee told AFP that Taiwan is working with two foreign satellite service providers to collaborate with the island’s largest telecom company.

Satellite receivers will be placed in 700 spots across Taiwan “to test whether we can switch communication systems” during times of crisis, he said.

“The first thing… is to maintain the stability of the government’s command system and maintain the accuracy of the information provided” to civilians, he told AFP. 

The post Taiwan prepares for cyber D-Day in China invasion scenarios appeared first on Digital Journal.

Democratic Taiwan is two days from a pivotal election that is being watched from Beijing to Washington because the next president will determine the island’s future relations with an increasingly assertive China in a flashpoint region.

China views Taiwan as a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to take it one day.

Vice President Lai Ching-te, the frontrunner candidate for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has portrayed himself as a defender of Taiwan’s democracy but has drawn ire from China in the past over comments about independence — a red line for Beijing.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement Thursday that if Lai “comes to power, he will further push for ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities (and create) turbulence in the Taiwan Strait”. 

“(He) would continue to follow the evil path of provoking ‘independence’ and… take Taiwan ever further away from peace and prosperity, and ever closer to war and decline,” it said.

“We sincerely hope that most Taiwan compatriots will see the extreme harm of the DPP’s ‘Taiwan independence’ line and the severe danger of Lai Ching-te in his instigation of cross-strait conflicts.”

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu criticised China’s “repeated interference” in the election. 

“Taiwan’s upcoming elections are in the international spotlight & (China’s) repeated interference steals the focus. Frankly, Beijing should stop messing with other countries’ elections & hold their own,” Wu posted on social media platform X on Thursday. 

Lai, who had once called himself a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan’s independence”, has taken a softer line on the issue on the campaign trail.

He has chosen instead to echo current President Tsai Ing-wen’s stance that Taiwan is “already independent” and therefore does not need to formally declare it.

China cut off high-level communications with Tsai’s government over her defence of the island’s sovereignty. 

Lai said on Tuesday that “as long as there is parity and dignity, Taiwan’s door will always be open” for cooperation with China.

“But we cannot have illusions about peace. Accepting China’s ‘one-China’ principle is not true peace,” he said, referring to Beijing’s doctrine that Taiwan is a part of China.

– ‘Staunch ally’ – 

Lai’s opponent Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT) — which has long encouraged closer cooperation with Beijing — has run on maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, saying that Lai would be a danger to China relations.

Hou rejected the DPP’s allegation that he was “pro-China and a sell-out of Taiwan”.

“Taiwan is a democratic and free country,” he told foreign media on Thursday, stressing that he did not have “unrealistic ideas” about China’s intentions.

“No matter what China thinks… what the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan wants us to do is to maintain the status quo,” Hou said, adding that the issue of “reunification” will not be on the table if he is elected. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a recent address that unifying Taiwan with China is an “inevitability”. 

Beijing has stepped up military pressure on the island in recent years, sending warplanes and naval vessels on manoeuvres around Taiwan. 

Tsai has boosted defence spending during her two terms in office, buying more weapons from top ally the United States.

Hou said he will “not only increase our purchases… but also strengthen Taiwan-US military cooperation” if elected. 

“We are happy to see the United States playing a positive role in maintaining stability in Taiwan Strait,” he said. 

“No matter what happens here, the United States will forever remain a staunch ally of ours.”

Washington said on Wednesday it plans to send an unofficial delegation to Taiwan after the election, a move sure to spike tensions with China but which Hou said on Thursday was “welcome”.

The post China calls Taiwan poll frontrunner a ‘severe danger’ days from crucial vote appeared first on Digital Journal.

The head-to-head showdown in Iowa capital Des Moines came five days before the state’s pivotal opening vote in the primary season, considered crucial for winnowing the field and giving those left standing a springboard for the rest of the race.

Trump has a commanding lead despite the multiple legal challenges he faces, but has skipped the televised debates, concluding he has nothing to gain by taking prime-time hits from lower-polling rivals. 

With no other candidate qualifying and the contest’s most vocal Trump critic, Chris Christie, dropping out hours earlier, the pair were expected to go after the ex-president more directly than in previous debates.

But it quickly became clear that they were competing to be the absent former president’s closest runner-up in Iowa rather than looking to eat into his lead as they ducked repeat opportunities to criticize him.

DeSantis, Florida’s governor and a hardline conservative, set the tone early on by calling Haley a “mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear.”

“Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors’ issues. I’m running to pursue your issues and your family’s issues and to turn this country around,” he said, dusting off a favorite campaign line.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, hit out at DeSantis’s runaway campaign spending and repeatedly directed viewers to a website dedicated to enumerating all of her opponent’s “lies.”

“Every time he lies… don’t turn this into a drinking game because you will be over-served by the end of the night,” she said.

The pair spent much of the debate on alternating monologues rehearsing prepared opposition research, aggressively trading barbs on their records and policies running their states.

– Broken promises –

DeSantis is seeking to regain ground lost to Haley and his path to the nomination depends on a strong showing in Iowa. 

Haley is looking to outperform expectations in the Midwestern state and ride into a one-on-one match-up with Trump in her preferred battleground of New Hampshire.

But much of the campaign has been overshadowed by the legal woes facing Trump, who has sought to use the precincts of courthouses across the country to dominate TV coverage and rally support.

The tycoon’s character came up early on but Haley stuck to the script, repeating a rote campaign remark that he was “the right president at the right time” but that “his way is not my way.”

She briefly criticized Trump over his bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen and for defending the 2021 assault on the US Capitol, but obfuscated when asked if she thought he viewed the Constitution differently from her.   

DeSantis was tougher on Trump and hit out at what he characterized as the front-runner’s poor record on curbing public disorder, broken promises on border security and failure to attack Washington corruption.

But he quickly pivoted back each time to standard campaign lines attacking Haley.

The Iraq veteran, who has promised to have drug smugglers shot dead at the southern border, focused on his opponent’s record on controlling immigration, taxation, education and for being soft on abortion.

Haley accused the more isolationist DeSantis of flip-flopping on aid to war-torn Ukraine, called him out repeatedly over his “demeaning” tone and attacked him over a feud with Disney that cost Florida 2,000 jobs.

Trump, who often arranges “counterprogramming” to draw attention away from the debates, was taking part in a Fox News town hall event elsewhere in Des Moines, his first live appearance on the network in two years.

He said DeSantis would be “working in a pizza shop or perhaps a law firm” without Trump’s help with his career. 

He sought to assuage fears that he will abandon the rule of law if he is returned to the White House, assuring viewers he was “not going to be a dictator.” 

“I’m going to manage like we did,” he added. “We were so successful, that the country was coming together.”

The post White House hopefuls flub chance to hit Trump in pre-Iowa debate appeared first on Digital Journal.

The diplomat was set to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, a day after talks with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas, who “committed” to reforming the body to potentially reunite Gaza and the occupied West Bank under its leadership after the war, Blinken said.

The Middle East trip, his fourth aimed at preventing the conflict’s spread, coincided with a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday demanding an “immediate” end to attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Huthi rebels carried out in solidarity with Hamas.

It also comes as Israel was set to face accusations brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court on Thursday that it has committed “genocidal” acts in Gaza, charges both Israel and Blinken have dismissed as baseless.

Hamas’s press office said early Thursday that 62 people had been killed in strikes overnight, including around Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in his evening briefing the night before that forces were continuing “to act decisively above and below ground” in the area.

Earlier in the day, the army said that troops east of the city had found “tunnel shafts, tunnel routes, and numerous weapons and materials”, and killed “dozens of terrorists”. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an Israeli strike on an ambulance in central Gaza killed four medics and two other passengers on Wednesday. 

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.

In Deir al-Balah, also in central Gaza, people wounded in a strike at a nearby school were brought to the Al-Aqsa hospital.

“There are injured people at the school since last night, no cars or ambulances are reaching it — nothing,” Ramadan Darwit told AFP at the hospital.

During a visit with troops in central Gaza, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi called it a “complex battlefield”.

“The fighting is… below ground, it’s above ground, and (against) an enemy that prepared its defences over a very long period of time in a very organised way. There is a population here, many houses — a very, very complex battlefield,” he said.

– ‘Indescribable’ crisis –

The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 23,357 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

The war has triggered an acute humanitarian crisis,with an Israeli siege sparking shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths posted on the social media platform X that Gaza’s health sector “is being slowly choked off”. 

The World Health Organization called the humanitarian situation “indescribable”.

In the southern border town of Rafah, which has been overrun with displaced people fleeing fighting further north, former Gaza health ministry staffer Zaki Shaheen converted his shop into a makeshift clinic.

Shaheen said he had worked in emergency care “my whole life”.

“So we decided to open a medical department, and we got help from the health ministry,” he told AFP, noting the goal was to take pressure off of already-overburdened hospitals.

“We receive no less than 30 or 40 cases per day, morning to night. I’ll be sleeping, then someone comes in with an injury or a burn, so we treat them.”

The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced inside the territory, which had already endured years of blockade and poverty.

Blinken sketched out a possible post-war future for Gaza after meeting Abbas and Bahrain’s King Hamad on Wednesday.

Blinken told Abbas that Washington supported “tangible steps” towards the creation of a Palestinian state — a long-term goal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has opposed.

In Bahrain, Blinken said Abbas was “committed” to reforming the Palestinian Authority “so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza, so that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership”.

– Huthis warned –

Fears, meanwhile, have soared of a widening conflict between Israel and Iran-backed armed groups, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but also others in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Huthi rebels in Yemen who claim to be acting in support of Hamas have carried out numerous attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a vital artery for international trade.

The United States has set up a multinational naval task force to protect shipping from the attacks, which Blinken on Wednesday said were “aided and abetted” by Iran and would bring “consequences”.

The same day, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding “that the Huthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security”.

Just a day before, the rebels had “launched a complex” attack in the area, US Central Command said, adding that US and British forces had shot down 18 drones and three missiles, with no casualties or damage reported.

The post Israel strikes southern Gaza as Blinken heads to Egypt for talks appeared first on Digital Journal.

The Civil Nuclear Roadmap includes exploring the construction of a major new power station, £300 million ($382 million) of investment to produce an advanced uranium fuel and “smarter regulation”. 

Taken together, the measures would quadruple UK nuclear power by 2050 to 24 gigawatts, enough to provide a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs.

“Nuclear is the perfect antidote to the energy challenges facing Britain — it’s green, cheaper in the long-term and will ensure the UK’s energy security,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

“This is the right long-term decision and is the next step in our commitment to nuclear power, which puts us on course to achieve net zero by 2050 in a measured and sustainable way,” he added.

The government says it is committed to the 2050 net zero target but has come under fire after announcing last summer it will issue “hundreds” of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

It is also grappling with a cost-of-living crisis partly caused by the spike in oil and gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Energy minister Claire Coutinho said the plans would mean the UK would “never again be held to ransom over energy by tyrants like Vladimir Putin”.

The government said the proposals represented “the biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years”, adding it would “reduce electricity bills, support thousands of jobs and improve UK energy security”.  

– Construction –

The most eye-catching proposal is the possible construction of another power station as big as Sizewell in east England, construction on which is due to begin this year, and Hinkley in west England, which is currently under construction.

Both power stations will be capable of powering six million homes each.  

The UK currently has nine operational nuclear reactors on five sites but many are nearing the end of their operating lives. 

Six reactors on three sites have been shut down since 2021 and will be dismantled.

However, operator EDF announced in March that it was extending the life of two British power plants — Heysham 1 and Hartlepool. 

The UK intends to build up to eight new reactors by 2050.

The government said on Sunday it will invest up to £300 million into producing the HALEU fuel required for new high-tech reactors, and which currently is only commercially produced in Russia.  

“The UK will lead the way from its North West production hub to provide the world with this form of uranium fuel, with the first plant aiming to be operational early in the next decade,” said the government. 

Regulators will also be allowed to assess projects while designs are finalised in a loosening of rules aimed at speeding along construction plans. 

The post UK unveils plans for ‘biggest nuclear power expansion in 70 years’ appeared first on Digital Journal.

A bustling, vibrant democracy of 23 million, Taiwan is separated by a narrow 180-kilometre (110-mile) strait from communist-ruled China, which claims it as part of its territory.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and the threat Beijing poses has dominated the race to the polls.

Frontrunner and Vice President Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — which positions itself as the defender of the island’s sovereignty — has called for voters to “choose the right path” to keep Taiwan’s democracy strong.

His main opponent, former police chief and mayor Hou Yu-ih says Lai is a danger for cross-strait relations, and touts his Kuomintang (KMT) as the only party able to maintain peace with China.

And rousing anti-establishment sentiments is the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which has emerged as an unexpected political force with leader Ko Wen-je presenting himself as a path out of the two-party deadlock.

Taiwan’s freewheeling political discourse has ranged from stagnating wages to social housing programmes, but China remains top-of-mind for voters.

The island moved from an autocracy under the nationalists who fled China in 1949 following the Communist Party’s takeover to a democracy in the 1990s, and has never looked back.

“We just want to maintain our way of life and principles,” said 65-year-old Chen at a recent DPP rally in southern Taiwan. 

– Sabre-rattling –

For decades, tensions with China have made Taiwan a potential military flashpoint of global concern.

Washington has spent billions arming the island, crucially located on a maritime gateway connecting the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean.

As China’s military prowess and ambitions have grown, so have its manoeuvres around Taiwan.

Chinese warplanes, reconnaissance drones and naval vessels are detected near-daily, and Beijing recently staged massive wargames simulating a blockade and sending missiles to its surrounding waters.

“All these threats certainly reflect Beijing’s desire to move towards ‘reunification’,” Francoise Mengin, a China expert at Sciences Po in Paris, told AFP.

But with high-level communications cut off by Beijing, there are also fears of “accidental conflict”, she said.

China issued a fresh threat on Thursday, saying an election win by Lai would pose a “severe danger” to cross-strait ties.

Victory for the frontrunner would be an unprecedented third consecutive term for a party in the democratic era.

It would also “determine the cross-strait dynamics in the next four years, which will in turn affect the stability of Taiwan Strait and… the region,” said Ivy Kwek of International Crisis Group. 

“Rising tensions… could potentially lead to direct conflict between the two major powers –- US and China.”

US President Joe Biden told Xi in a meeting last year to “respect” Taiwan’s democratic processes, while the Chinese leader called on Washington to “stop arming” Taipei. 

– Chip powerhouse –

Taiwan is also home to a powerhouse semiconductor industry, producing 90 percent of the world’s most advanced microchips — tiny silicon wafers needed to power everything from coffee machines to cellphones to missile launch pads. 

This makes it a critical cog in the global economy, particularly as the United States and China have clashed over technology exports surrounding semiconductors.

Any conflict would have “huge ramifications on the world’s economy,” Kwek said. 

A blockade of the island would turn the key Taiwan Strait into a chokehold, affecting the transport of 50 percent of the world’s containers and costing the global economy at least $2 trillion, according to Rhodium Group. 

China’s growing show of military force has also hardened Taiwan’s people against Xi’s rhetoric that both sides of the strait are part of “one family”.

Today, less than three percent of the population say they feel Chinese — an evolution in identity from 1992 when about a quarter said they were Chinese.

Sarah Liu of the University of Edinburgh said the whole world has an interest in preserving the island as “one of the strongest democracies in Asia”. 

“The world has recognised the importance of preventing an authoritarian regime to grow drastically as it has implications for the world’s safety and democracy,” she said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent a frisson of fear across the world, while China’s clampdown on Hong Kong has further alarmed the Taiwanese public. 

“It’s best… to just maintain the status quo for everyone’s peace,” said KMT supporter Huang Shi-Chang, 67. 

“Let the Chinese Communist Party live their life, and we live ours.”

The post ‘Our way of life’: Taiwan to vote in election dominated by China appeared first on Digital Journal.

Violence erupted in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday evening after a group of soldiers, police officers and prison guards launched protests against the government.

Angry crowds torched buildings and ransacked shops during a night of turmoil that soon spread 300 kilometres (186 miles) north to the city of Lae. 

By Thursday afternoon, police commissioner David Manning confirmed that at least 15 people had died in the country’s two largest cities. 

Prime Minister James Marape on Thursday apologised to the country, saying the bursts of “lawlessness” would “not be tolerated”. 

“I want to speak today, speak to the people and speak to the country,” he said at a press conference. 

“This is your country as much as it’s my country. Breaking the law does not achieve certain outcomes.” 

Marape said the worst of the riots had subsided by Thursday morning, but conceded “it’s still tense out there” in parts of Port Moresby. 

AFPTV footage showed looters in the capital dashing into stores through smashed glass windows, stuffing stolen goods into cardboard boxes, shopping trolleys and plastic buckets. 

One man was seen lugging an entire chest freezer away on his shoulders.  

Buildings and cars were set alight, AFPTV footage showed, stirring up thick plumes of black smoke that hung over the worst-hit parts of the city. 

Earlier, a smaller crowd gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Port Moresby, tearing a security gate off its rails and torching a parked police car.

Beijing has lodged a complaint with Papua New Guinea’s government, following reports that rioters targeted Chinese-owned businesses. 

Port Moresby resident Jerry Mathew, 30, said “many shops” had come under threat.

“Some parts of the city are safe, but other major centres are not,” he told AFP as the riots raged Wednesday evening. 

– ‘End this strife’ –

National Capital District governor Powes Parkop said the unrest represented an “unprecedented level of strife” in Port Moresby, while local newspaper the Post Courier called it the city’s “darkest day”. 

“What is most important is that we must end this strife,” Parkop told a local radio station Wednesday evening. 

“Nobody will be a winner in this type of civil unrest.”

Security forces staged a protest inside Papua New Guinea’s parliament after noticing their pay had been docked without explanation.  

Although the government swiftly promised to fix what it described as a payroll “glitch”, it was not enough to stop disgruntled civilians from joining the fray. 

The burst of violence highlights the often volatile nature of life in Papua New Guinea, a country plagued by poverty and high levels of crime.

Perched less than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Australia’s northernmost border, Papua New Guinea is the largest and most populous state in Melanesia. 

Although it is blessed with vast deposits of gas, gold, and minerals, human rights groups estimate that almost 40 percent of its nine million citizens still live below the poverty line. 

Australia recently inked a security deal with Papua New Guinea, promising to help its stretched police force combat arms trafficking, drug smuggling and tribal violence.

“We continue to urge calm at this difficult time,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Thursday.

The post Papua New Guinea vows crackdown after 15 killed in riots appeared first on Digital Journal.

Passionate about the environment, the 55-year-old has discreetly imposed himself in the shadow of his hugely popular mother, Queen Margrethe II, who announced her plans to abdicate in a televised New Year’s Eve address after 52 years on the throne.

Enjoying the support of more than 80 percent of Danes according to a recent poll, the prince will become King Frederik X upon his mother’s abdication on Sunday.

“When the time comes, I will guide the ship,” he said in a speech celebrating his chain-smoking mother’s half-century on the throne in 2022.

“I will follow you, as you followed your father” in leading the thousand-year-old institution, Prince Frederik added.

But this measured assurance is a far cry from his younger self.

“He was not strictly speaking a rebel, but as a child and young man, he was very uncomfortable with the media attention and the knowledge that he was going to be king,” said Gitte Redder, an expert on the Danish royal family.

He only “gained confidence in his mid-20s,” she told AFP.

– Lonely and tormented –

A lonely and tormented teenager, Frederik resented his parents for neglecting him as they fulfilled their royal obligations.

He sought solace in fast cars and fast living, and was considered a spoiled party prince in the early 1990s.

But that view began to change after he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995, the first Danish royal to complete a university education.

His time at college included a stint at Harvard in the United States, where he was enrolled under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen.

The fake surname was a nod to his father, French diplomat Henri de Monpezat who became Prince Consort Henrik when he married Margrethe.

But Frederik — who in addition to Danish speaks English, French and German — really began to mature into his role during his time training in the three branches of Denmark’s military. 

The prince served in the navy’s Frogmen Corps — where he was nicknamed “Pingo” (Penguin) — one of only four of the 300 recruits to pass all of the tests in 1995.

In 2000, he took part in a four-month, 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) ski expedition across Greenland.

– Complementing the queen –

His daredevil side has landed him in hospital after sledging and scooter accidents, but his popularity has soared, boosted by the Royal Run, annual fun runs across Denmark that he began in 2018.

“He is a sportsman, he attends concerts and football matches, which makes him even more accessible than his mother,” royal expert Redder said.

“I don’t want to lock myself in a fortress. I want to be myself, a human being,” he once said, insisting he would stick to that even after taking the throne.

He met his wife Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer, in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympic Games.

They have tried to give their four children as normal an upbringing as possible, sending them mainly to state schools.

Their eldest, Prince Christian, who recently turned 18, was the first Danish royal to go to daycare.

The couple have gradually taken on many royal duties in recent years as the queen entered her eighties, “but very slowly and depending on the queen’s health”, said historian Sebastian Olden-Jorgensen.

The couple are “modern, woke, lovers of pop music, modern art and sports,” he added.

They “do not represent a potential revolution compared to the queen”, but a careful transition adapting to the times, he said.

Among other things, Frederik has championed Denmark’s drive to find solutions to the climate crisis.

He has said that he sees himself complementing his mother, a polymath who is an accomplished writer and artist.

“You paint, I exercise. You dig for buried objects from the past, I buried my head in order not to be recognised during my time in the armed forces. You are a master of words. I am sometimes at a loss for them,” he joked during the queen’s jubilee celebrations.

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