President Barack Obama implored Americans of all races to show more unity and understanding as he addressed an emotional memorial for five slain policemen in Dallas on Tuesday.The president, accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama, leaned heavily on scripture as he ministered to a country stunned by gun violence and torn asunder by race and politics.”I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the past week,” he said.

A succession of shootings, each racially charged, has led to a sense that “the deepest fault lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened,” Mr. Obama said.”I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem.”From Charleston to Orlando to last week’s ambush in Dallas, by a black gunman out to kill whites in retribution for police violence, the past year has seen a torrent of slaughter motivated by hate.Each week seemingly brings new shaky footage of a police officer shooting dead a black American — images that quickly go viral and revive tough questions about race and policing.

Mr. Obama’s speech included a frank admission that his own efforts to tackle violence, guns and racism had come up short.
spirit of unity born of tragedy can gradually dissipate.””I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been.”

We’ve heard prejudice

Eight years ago, Mr. Obama’s rhetorical prowess made him America’s first black president and raised hopes that the country could overcome deeply entrenched societal divides.Tuesday’s memorial service showed a weary president whose hopes for change had been thwarted.The way out, Mr. Obama said — suggesting work that will continue beyond his presidency — was for Americans to open their hearts to each other.Black Americans protesting police racism, he said, must understand how hard the police’s job can b
“You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are. And you pretend as if there’s no context?”

But Mr. Obama also challenged a mostly-white police force and white Americans at large to admit that while the edifice of legalized racism had gone, prejudice remained.”We have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point,” he said.”We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts.”

‘We flood communities with guns’

That call for unity was echoed by Republican former president George W. Bush.”Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions,” said the Dallas resident.But Mr. Obama also made a call for Bush’s fellow Republicans to realize the cost of their opposition to gun control and spending on mental health and drug treatment.”We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment,” Mr. Obama said pointing to string of causes for violence.

“We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.”Earlier a black Dallas trauma surgeon Brian Williams, who treated several police officers, gave poignant voice to the fissures that have shaken the country.He spoke of buying ice cream for a cops so that his young daughter could see him interacting normally with the police — and not grow up with the same fears he has.

Addressing police, he said: “I support you, I will defend you and I will care for you.”

“That doesn’t mean that I do not fear you.”

America, black and blue

Last week, the fatal police shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, prompted nationwide anger, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets from coast to coast.They also seemingly triggered the deadly rampage in Dallas by black Afghanistan war veteran Micah Johnson, as a protest against police brutality was wrapping up.Johnson, 25, used a high-powered rifle to kill five police officers and wound nine others in a sniper attack late Thursday. Two civilians were also hurt.He told negotiators before he was killed that he wanted to murder white cops in revenge for the black deaths.

The memorial paid a poignant tribute to the fallen “peacemakers in blue” Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith.Each officer was represented by an empty chair in the auditorium, each adorned with a folded US flag and officer’s cap. © AFP, 2016

China on Tuesday rejected an international ruling on the South China Sea, which went in favour of the Philippines, as “null and void” and devoid of any “binding force”.Two statements, one by the Chinese government, and another by the Foreign Ministry, strongly defended Chinese claims in the South China Sea, following an unfavourable verdict on Tuesday by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.

“With regard to the award rendered on 12 July 2016 by the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration established at the unilateral request of the Republic of the Philippines (hereinafter referred to as the “Arbitral Tribunal”), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China solemnly declares that the award is null and void and has no binding force. China neither accepts nor recognises it,” the Foreign Ministry statement asserted.

The Chinese response follows the ruling by the 5-member international tribunal, which rejected the legal validity of the nine-dash line—the demarcation line underlying Beijing’s claim to most of the South ChinaSea. “There was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’,” the court ruled.The court opined that the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea superseded China’s “Nine-dash line” – the locus of China’ 69-year-old claim to nearly 85 percent of the South China Sea. The tribunal at the PCA also ruled that Beijing does not have a “historic title” over the waters of the South China Sea.

Besides, the court slammed China for damaging parts of the ecosystem in the Spratly islands — a contested archipelago– on account of overfishing and development of artificial islands.But in its riposte, the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly asserted that Beijing’s “territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards. China opposes and will never accept any claim or action based on those awards”.

The statement also accused the Philippines of “bad faith” by pursuing a unilateral course at The Hague. Manila’s aim, it said, was “not to resolve the relevant disputes between China and the Philippines, or to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, but to deny China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea”.

Yet, differentiating between the government of Benigno Aquino, which had knocked on the PCA’s door in 2013, and the current administration of Rodrigo Duterte , the Chinese side said it was looking forward to a dialogue with Manila. “We have noted that the new Philippine government has expressed its willingness to hold a bilateral dialogue with China in a bid to promote common development and properly manage the dispute between the two sides. Our door to that is widely open,” observed Lu Kang, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson in his daily briefing on Tuesday.

China has also stressed that rather than a question of legality, the arbitration sought by the Philippines masked Washington’s pursuit of geopolitical dominance in the Asia-Pacific routed through Manila. Mr. Lu attributed the current crisis in the South China Sea mainly to the US Rebalance doctrine that has led to accumulation of US forces in the Asia-Pacific.

“Before the implementation of the so-called rebalance of the Asia-Pacific by the US, the South China sea was very tranquil and peaceful. But then here come the Americans and their policy of rebalance to Asia; and things have changed,” he observed.A blunt editorial in People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) also observed that “the arbitration case is actually a trap set by the US and the Philippines in which the arbitral tribunal has played the role of an accomplice”.