China-Australia tensions escalate; Royal Dutch Shell faces climate lawsuit; Brazilian Amazon deforestation sees 12-year high

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The tit-for-tat between China and Australia continues to worsen, as the two countries accuse each other of grievous offenses. China is refusing to apologize or delete a tweet depicting a murderous fake soldier image posted from the account of Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao, while accusing Australia of trying to deflect public attention from alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said China should be “utterly ashamed” of tweeting the “repugnant” image. Canberra has demanded an apology for the social media share, while Beijing now says that Australia is simply blaming China for the deepening bilateral spat. But relations between the two nations had already been souring.

A statement Tuesday from the Chinese embassy in Australia said that Morrison was engaging in an attempt to “stoke domestic nationalism.” It also said Australian officials “misread” the tweet and advised the Australian government to “hold those perpetrators accountable and bring justice to the victims” in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the year, Australia had led calls for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 in China, and then a few months ago, the last two Australian media correspondents pulled out of China. In addition, two Australian academics were recently banned from entering China. Meanwhile, China has blockaded Australian imports of wine, barley, cotton and coal.

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Climate activists have taken Royal Dutch Shell to court in The Hague, demanding that the oil supermajor drastically cut back its production of fossil fuels to limit global warming. The lawsuit by seven environmental groups — including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth — was filed in April in the Netherlands, and asks for Shell to slice its greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030, and to zero by 2050. The company’s lawyer, Dennis Horeman, said, “No company can change the energy system by itself.”

And, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has reached a 12-year high, according to the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In the year ending in July 2020, 6,890 square miles were destroyed, an increase of 9.5% from the prior year. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has promoted development of the area and endeavored to weaken the agencies that work to stop illegal ranching, logging and mining of rainforest land.

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