BRIEF

Biden: US must face ‘good, bad’ of history

SELMA—President Joe Biden on Sunday stressed the importance of knowing the whole of US history, both “good” and “bad,” as he commemorated the brutal suppression 58 years ago of a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.

“History matters,” the president said during a speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where a march of hundreds of peaceful activists was violently suppressed by police on March 7, 1965.

“Bloody Sunday” only catalyzed support for Black rights and led a few months later to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The marchers “forced the country to confront the hard truth,” Biden said, accusing today’s Republican opposition of trying to “hide the truth” of history.

“No matter how hard some people try, we can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know,” he said, as debate rages over how US history is taught in America’s schools.

“We should learn everything. The good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation, and everyone should know the truth of Selma.” AFP

No women: Afghan universities reopen

KABUL—Male students trickled back to their classes Monday after Afghan universities reopened following a winter break but women remain barred by Taliban authorities.

The university ban is one of several restrictions imposed on women since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 and has sparked global outrage -- including across the Muslim world.

“It’s heartbreaking to see boys going to the university while we have to stay at home,” said Rahela, 22, from the central province of Ghor.

“This is gender discrimination against girls because Islam allows us to pursue higher education. Nobody should stop us from learning.”

The Taliban government imposed the ban after accusing women students of ignoring a strict dress code and a requirement to be accompanied by a male relative to and from campus.

Most universities had already introduced gender-segregated entrances and classrooms, as well as allowing women to be taught only by female professors or old men.

“It’s painful to see that thousands of girls are deprived of education today,” Mohammad Haseeb Habibzadah, a student of computer science at Herat university, told AFP. AFP

New UK bills to curb migrant boat arrivals

LONDON—Britain’s Conservative government is expected to present on Tuesday a new bill providing for the detention and swift deportation of asylum seekers who illegally enter the country via small boats, according to media reports.

Despite Brexit-related promises to tighten control of its borders, Britain has seen a considerable uptick in such arrivals, logging a record 45,000 last year, and pressure has mounted on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to tackle the situation.

The bill to be unveiled Tuesday includes measures facilitating the detention and deportation “as soon as reasonably practicable” of asylum seekers arriving in the country illegally, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.

According to the Mail, the legislation contains a “rights brake”, making asylum claims by those arriving on small boats inadmissible.

The government intends to send at least some deportees to Rwanda under a deal that was struck last year but which had never been applied after running into legal challenges. AFP

Xi vows to lift manufacturing capacity, won’t rely on imports

BEIJING, China—President Xi Jinping vowed to boost the country’s manufacturing capacity and not rely on overseas markets, state media reported Monday.

Speaking at the annual gathering of the rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing on Sunday, Xi said China should be able to fend for itself.

“I’ve always said there are two critical areas for China: one is to safeguard our rice bowl, and the other is to build up a strong manufacturing sector,” Xi said, according to the state-run People’s Daily.

“As a great nation of 1.4 billion people, we must rely on ourselves,” Xi added. “We can’t depend on international markets to save us.”

The comments, during a meeting with delegates representing China’s economically advanced Jiangsu province, belie concerns in Beijing over an increasingly hostile international environment and lagging growth at home.

As China’s technology ambitions have been hit with a raft of restrictions by the United States and its Western allies, Beijing has doubled down on the need to build a self-reliant industry and shift away from imports for sectors perceived as vital to national security, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Washington has in recent months tightened sanctions on Chinese chipmakers, citing national security concerns and the ability for the technology to be used by China’s military.

The highly choreographed National Party Congress (NPC) kicked off with outgoing Premier Li Keqiang announcing an increase in military spending and modest economic growth.

The 2023 GDP growth goal of “about five percent” fell slightly short of market expectations and comes as Chinese authorities are grappling with how to stem the recent reorientation of global manufacturing chains to countries such as India and Vietnam. AFP