NEW COLD WAR/RED DRAGON

The vast scale of Beijing’s high-tech balloon programme

11 February 2023

Sailors recover the spy balloon (Photo: Alamy)

There will no doubt be some tense moments in the boardrooms of western technology companies over the coming days after the revelation that the Chinese spy balloon shot down after traversing the United States had western-made components with English-language writing on them. The finding was reportedly contained in intelligence briefings to US lawmakers and will almost certainly lead to still greater scrutiny of the sale to China of advanced ‘dual-use’ technology.

China’s continuing claims that the balloon was an innocent weather balloon blown off-course are looking increasingly absurd

Investigators are continuing their efforts to recover the wreckage of the balloon and its payload of surveillance kit from shallow waters off the South Carolina coast but have already concluded that the craft was part of a fleet operated by the Chinese military with sensors capable of sniffing for electronic communications. The targets likely included data transmitted in and around US bases as well as between those bases and US satellites. Officials said the balloon’s surveillance equipment alone was the size of a regional jet, with solar panels capable of powering ‘multiple active intelligence collecting sensors’, with the data sent in real time to Chinese satellites orbiting above.

President Biden has faced fierce criticism for allowing the balloon to cross the US before shooting it down, but it is now clear that one reason – apart from the fear of damage from falling debris – was to observe the 60-meter-tall balloon in action. Officials provided high resolution images from U-2 spy planes that monitored the balloon. They also insisted that other countermeasures had been taken to prevent the balloon from harvesting data.

Officials insist they were monitoring the balloon’s progress well before it crossed into US airspace and was spotted loitering over Montana, home to the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which has more than 100 silos containing nuclear-tipped Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.


On Friday Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down another ‘high altitude object’ near Alaska, although the White House did not confirm whether this was another Chinese spy balloon. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the object ‘posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the civilian flight.’ US officials say at least five Chinese spy balloons have previously crossed US territory – two during the Biden administration, and three while Donald Trump was in the White House. But they have sought to portray the intrusions as part of a global intelligence effort by the People’s Liberation Army air force – with the Chinese spy balloons intruding on the sovereignty of more than 40 countries on five continents. In an effort to gain maximum diplomatic leverage, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman this week briefed dozens of Washington-based diplomats, and US embassies have been sent information to be shared with allies.

Spy balloons are no longer the clunky vehicles of yesteryear and information is starting to emerge about the vast scale of China’s research efforts into what it terms high-altitude ‘lighter-than-air vehicles’. Officials say the programme is operated out of multiple sites in China. Satellite images published by the military-focused website ‘The War Zone’ show large hanger-like facilities in the country’s far western Xinjiang province, said to be part of the secret programme. Chinese academic papers describe the testing of a ‘stratosphere airship’, and a team at China’s National University of Defense Technology is studying advances in balloons. China has also boasted that high altitude balloons can be used as a platform to launch rockets and drones. As long ago as 2018, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a high-altitude balloon had launched test hypersonic missiles. Video footage posted at the time showing a missile-touting balloon similar to the one over the US has now been deleted. A 2020 article in the People’s Liberation Army Daily described near space as ‘a new battleground in modern warfare.’

China’s continuing claims that the balloon was an innocent weather balloon blown off-course – ‘The unintended, unexpected entry of the unmanned Chinese civilian airship into US airspace,’ as foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning put it this week – are looking increasingly absurd. Ning also fell back on a bit of whataboutism, saying, ‘US aircraft and warships frequently conduct close-in reconnaissance around China, which seriously threatens China’s national security and undermines regional peace and stability.’ But there is a world of difference between missions in international air space or waters close to China and the balloon’s flagrant violation of sovereignty.

The fallout from the spy balloon may only just be beginning. Investigators from multiple US intelligence agencies will pore over the debris from the balloon, and as further details of its surveillance payload emerge over coming days, Washington will no doubt relish Beijing’s embarrassment. There will be close scrutiny of the Chinese companies and institutes that have contributed technology and know-how to the balloon programme. It will shed further light on China’s policy of military-civil fusion, under which civilian or commercial tech must be made available to the military. Further sanctions and possibly criminal charges are no doubt being readied by the US justice department. The links between western tech companies and China will come under further scrutiny, tech restrictions further strengthened.

The balloon affair is a gift to those in Washington who have simply lost patience with the scale and breadth of Chinese intelligence gathering – its attempts to hoover up data and technical knowhow by every means possible, characterised by FBI director Christopher Wray as, ‘the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security’. It is remarkable to think that just two weeks ago, with secretary of state Antony Blinken set to visit Beijing and meet Xi Jinping, there was some talk of a reset in relations, with China pressing for some relief from sanctions that are restricting its access to advanced western technology. That was always wishful thinking. Now those hopes have rapidly deflated along with the spy balloon, and Xi only has himself to blame.




Ian Williams is a former foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News and NBC, and author of The Fire of the Dragon: China’s New Cold War (Birlinn).

Protesters clash at Tate Britain over drag queen reading to children

Arrest made over suspected racial abuse of police officer as Aida H Dee hosts Drag Queen Story Time

Liam James
THE INDEPENDENT

A person has been arrested after protesters clashed over a drag queen storytelling event at the Tate Britain.

The gallery in central London was hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on Saturday, with tales told by author Aida H Dee, who the gallery’s website describes as “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.

Around 30 far-right protesters are understood to have gathered on Millbank by the white nationalist organisation Patriotic Alternative in opposition to the event. Some held signs that read: “No drag for kids!” and “Leave our kids alone!”

Right-wing protesters clash with counter protesters outside the Tate Britain
(Shutterstock)

A similar number of counter-protesters from the antifascist group Stand Up To Racism were also outside the gallery in support of the storytelling. Signs from the second group read: “Don’t let the far right divide us” and “Trans rights now”.

The two groups clashed with pictures from the scene showing physical altercations between opposing protesters.

The Metropolitan Police said a person was arrested on suspicion of making a racially aggravated comment towards a police officer amid the chaos. No injuries have been reported and officers remain at the scene, the force said

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A far-right protester amid clashes on Millbank
(Shutterstock)

Aida H Dee said the day had been “proper emotional”, adding that five protesters had gained entry to the Tate and “caused a disruption” in parts of the building, but they did not affect the readings.

Aida tweeted: “5 haters made it into the Tate. They caused a disruption. BUT not to Drag Story Hour UK ... They made a fuss elsewhere in the building, not where the show was!! SHOW 2 went swimmingly!!!”

Antifascists (pictured) were warned far-right can be ‘dangerous’
(Shutterstock)

The drag queen had been staging three story-telling sessions on Saturday, at 11am, noon and 2pm. Aida, whose real name is Sab Samuel, has been on a tour called Drag Queen Story Hour UK – which has been protested at several venues.

Previously, a spokesperson for the Tate said: “We do not programme artists in order to promote particular points of view, nor to reconcile differing points of view.

“Our galleries offer a broad programme and visitors have the freedom to choose which aspects of it they engage with.”

WE NEVER HAD DRAG QUEEN STORY HOUR

Violence Outside British Hotel for Asylum Seekers Leads to 15 Arrests

February 11, 2023

People look at a fire outside a hotel providing refuge to asylum seekers following a protest in Knowsley near Liverpool, Britain February 10, 2023 in this still image obtained from a social media video.
LONDON —

British police said Saturday that 15 people, including a 13-year-old child, had been arrested after a protest by crowds outside a hotel housing asylum seekers turned violent, causing injuries and a police van being set on fire.

Offenders threw missiles including lit fireworks at police officers following an initially peaceful protest and counter-protest Friday evening in Knowsley near Liverpool in northwest England, police said.

Knowsley Council said the protests occurred outside the Suites Hotel, which has been providing refuge to asylum seekers since January last year under a British government contract.

One officer and two members of the public received slight injuries, police said, adding that a total of 13 men and two women had been arrested.

"A number of individuals who turned up at the Suites Hotel last night were intent on using a planned protest to carry out violent and despicable behavior," Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.

Some individuals turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to "cause as much trouble as they could," she added.

Rumors and misinformation had circulated on social media ahead of Friday's violence following an incident on February 6 in Knowsley in which a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl, Kennedy said.

"We know that those involved in the violent activity last night used this as an excuse to commit violence and intimidate members of the public," she said, adding an investigation into the incident involving the teenage girl was ongoing.

As the number of migrants crossing the English Channel to reach Britain rises, the government has been using hotels across the country as temporary accommodation while it processes their applications for asylum.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made cracking down on illegal migration one of his government's top priorities and is planning new legislation to address the issue.

Migrants arriving on small boats have become a major political issue, particularly in working-class areas in the north and central England, where they are blamed for making it harder for people to find work and stretching public services.

Police said they would enforce a dispersal order in the area around the Suites Hotel for two days and extra officers will carry out high visibility policing to prevent further incidents.

New pension protests hit France, unions threaten 'standstill'


Stéphanie LEROUGE
Sat, February 11, 2023 


Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in France on Saturday in a fourth day of action against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform, with unions warning they would ramp up strikes if the plan is not dropped.

Unlike on the three previous protest days there was no call for a day of nationwide strikes, although air traffic controllers at Paris' second airport staged a surprise walkout that left half of flights cancelled.

Macron and his government face a double battle to raise the pension age from 62 to 64, overcoming resistance on the streets as well as pushing the legislation through parliament.

The CGT union said 500,000 people protested in Paris alone, and over 2.5 million nationwide.

The interior ministry, which generally gives much lower numbers, said there were 963,000 protesters nationwide and 93,000 in Paris.

The figures were somewhat higher than on the last day of action on February 7 but possibly also short of the mammoth weekend turnout some had hoped for.

There were protests in other French cities up and down the country, with images on television showing police using water cannons in the western city of Rennes.

Protesters in the French capital took the traditional protest route from Republique Square to Nation Square, behind a banner saying: "No to working longer!"

There were tensions when a car and a bin were overturned and set on fire, prompting shield-wielding police and the fire brigade to intervene.

- 'Bring to a standstill' -

The march was led by the leaders of France's eight main unions, keeping up a tight unity that the government has so far been unable to break.

The unions said in a joint statement that they would call for a national strike that would "bring France to a standstill" on March 7 if the government "remained deaf to the popular mobilisation".

Another day of protests and strikes is planned on February 16. The date of March 7 marks when the text of the bill is due in France's upper house, the Senate.

The leader of the hardline CGT, Philippe Martinez, said "the ball is in the court of the president and the government to determine if the movement intensifies and hardens or if they take into account the current mobilisation."

Laurent Berger, the head of the CFDT union, a more moderate group the government hoped would take a different line, said the timetable would give time for the government if it wants to react.

Air traffic controllers at Paris Orly airport meanwhile staged an unannounced strike that resulted in the cancellation of 50 percent of flights from Paris' number two hub in the afternoon.

And in a move that risks severe consequences, unions representing workers on the Paris RATP public transport system called for a rolling strike from March 7.

"Despite the rejection by a very large majority of the population, the government remains intent on its brutal, unfair and unjustified reform," they said.

Speaking in Brussels last week, Macron urged unions to show a "spirit of responsibility" and "not block the life of the rest of the country".

Macron's ruling party also faces a challenge to push the legislation through parliament where it lost its overall majority in elections last year.

It needs support from the right-wing opposition to avoid recourse to a potentially explosive constitutional measure that would allow the legislation to be rammed through without a vote.

"I have doubts about Macron, his ability to move, to listen to the people," said Alfonso Gimeno, a pensioner, who came to Paris to demonstrate with his three children aged 9, 13 and 15.

bur-sjw/ea/lcm

How Republicans Are Echoing Climate Change Conspiracy Theories

BY ALEKS PHILLIPS 

ON 2/11/23 

Climate change denial is nothing new, and nor is criticism of policies designed to address it. However, as even previous opponents increasingly accept the scientific consensus, those still skeptical of global warming have turned to a new weapon to voice their disapproval.

They are increasingly embracing political rhetoric echoing conspiracy theories that global warming is a hoax by world leaders designed to subdue or impoverish their populations.

Largely—but not exclusively—confined to the right of the Republican Party in national politics, this kind of language centers on several key themes, such as the so-called "new world order," "globalist politicians," and "government control."

While such claims may not stand up to scrutiny, how effective is such language in rousing popular support against climate change policies? Newsweek has spoken to experts in climate change policy and communication, who have charted what might lie behind it, and where it might be going next.

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'Climate Change Is a Globalist Agenda To Control People'

In this combination image, Flames surge into the air as firefighters try to contain the fire from spotting across Highway 395 during the Dixie Fire on August 17, 2021 near Milford, California and inset photos of U.S. Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert (Left) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Right) .GETTY

One assertion is that concerns about climate change and policies aimed to curb it are part of a global agenda designed to control people's choices and limit their freedom. Some conservative Republicans are increasingly tapping into this kind of language.

Dan Bishop, a North Carolina GOP congressman, wrote in July 2022 that "Biden's 'climate crisis' is just the latest excuse for the Left to abuse executive power to push an anti-American, anti-freedom agenda."

Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said the Green New Deal and "climate lies" are a "SCAM that waste trillions of taxpayers' dollars and only serves the Liberal World Order enriching Klaus Schwab and those like his [World Economic Forum] frat boys."

Colorado representative Lauren Boebert has said that policies like the Green New Deal and the Paris Agreement "work for globalist career politicians but they do not work for everyday Americans."

Andy Biggs, a congressman for Arizona, said in September 2022 that California was "essentially imposing climate change lockdowns," adding: "This is all about control (again)."

For him, the Green New Deal was "yet another power grab" even as "government control never leads to anything good."

Newsweek has contacted Bishop, Greene, Boebert, and Biggs for comment.

While such criticism is often apparently based on genuine fears for people's jobs or excessive government regulation, the language echoes conspiracy theories about climate change. These theories often center around the notion that policies to tackle global warming represent a mechanism for control.

For example, a post promoted by the Redpill Project, an online conspiracy theory outlet, described climate change as "just a scare tactic" and a "long-term justification to enforce the agenda." It also claimed: "There have been carbon footprint scores/measurements assigned to EVERYTHING, even children and the number of them a family has. What a way to control population!"

The post appears to perpetuate one of the most common conspiracy tropes surrounding the growing global population and the impact it is having on the planet. The world's population is expected to peak at around 10.4 million in the 2080s, the U.N. estimates.

'America First'

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) speaks in the House Chamber in Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2023. He has previously said that the climate crisis "is just the latest excuse for the Left to abuse executive power to push an anti-American, anti-freedom agenda."

"Most sort of climate change skeptics and deniers represent climate change not necessarily as a made-up story, but rather as an exaggerated story, which has been exaggerated by the so-called liberals in order to legitimize a big state controlling everybody," Tim Forsyth, a professor in environment and politics at the London School of Economics, told Newsweek.

"It's all to do with one's attitude to regulation and rules, rather than necessarily whether the facts about climate change are believable or not."

However, Forsyth noted that those on the left who want to see more state intervention on other issues, such as social welfare or women's rights, "will also coalesce around true claims about climate change, because that's also a convenient way to make the point about the need to do something."

For Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy and environment at the University of Michigan, the claim is a reaction to the U.S. not being able to resolve the issue on its own, often having to be just one voice among many nations.

"It also collides with what I would call a kind of energy nationalism in the United States," he told Newsweek. "That the U.S. is kind of an island: it can produce lots of energy, and largely set its own course. And so why are you going to worry about these relationships?"

Rabe agreed that the kind of language increasingly used, on both sides of the political spectrum, echoes an appeal to American isolationism.

"It's sort of reflected in some of the more nationalistic or even America First rhetoric we've seen in recent years—and really, within both parties," he said. "Even things like the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to encourage development and investment within the United States, as opposed to sharing resources or wealth and new technology with other nations."

The antithesis is a "hard political sell," Rabe said, as one of the "huge challenges" of climate change was trying to sell near-term actions for which the benefits will only be seen in the long term.

Forsyth said discussions about climate change were being "twisted" to address "older, tribal debates" to engage people in the issue. Any viewpoint tended to translate climate issues "into languages and themes which pre-exist and which people are more worried about."

In terms of confronting rhetoric about a globalist agenda, Rabe said he did not want to defend "fancy conferences at Davos." However, he said that polling suggested "growing numbers of Americans recognize this as a significant problem." When it comes to a solution, "do you want the U.S. to just sort of sit on the sidelines, or hide from the rest of the world—or do you want it to engage constructively?"

A poll by the Pew Research Center in May 2022 found there was broad agreement on several specific policies to address climate change, such as planting more trees to absorb carbon emissions and offering tax credits for companies to develop carbon capture and storage technology. Both policies were backed by a majority of Republicans and Democrats alike.

However, President Joe Biden's approach to climate change has proved far more polarizing, with 79 percent of Democrats saying it is taking the country in the right direction, and 82 percent of Republicans saying it is taking the country in the wrong direction.

'Climate Legislation Is Aimed at Limiting Freedom and Culling Jobs'

President Joe Biden, center, signs the Inflation Reduction Act with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, left, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, right, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on August 16, 2022. Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy and environment at the University of Michigan, said such measures "are designed to encourage development and investment within the United States, as opposed to sharing resources."

DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

Echoing fears about population control is not the only rhetorical device that climate change deniers or skeptics are using. Another narrative increasingly used by those skeptical of the current administration's approach to climate change connects the "new world order" with fears for Americans' financial security.

According to the Redpill Project, in a "new world order" apparently being sought by Biden among others, environmental metrics "will affect [people's] employability, credit worthiness, as well as other constitutional rights."

Lawyers have indeed questioned the constitutionality of these metrics. However, their effect on creditworthiness is limited to companies and, according to one study, they actually improve employee satisfaction.

A January 27 blog post by the free market e-newsletter Economic Prism—reposted by the libertarian news site Zero Hedge, among others—states that in a "centrally planned economy, decisions are not made between individuals" but "by politicians and bureaucrats through policies of mass market intervention."

"The elites pass down their edicts," it added. "'Thou shall not use gas burning stoves,' for example. Or 'thou shall burn corn in their gas tank.'"

To some extent, this politicization of the climate change debate, and the language around it, sees reactions split firmly along partisan lines. The notion of a political elite eroding people's freedoms is frequently repeated.

Greene wrote in December that the "climate cult […] will force you to drive an [electric vehicle]." In February 2022 she said Americans "want to buy whatever kind of vehicle they decide without politicians telling them what they can and can't buy. They want freedom." Greene added: "They want Comrade Uncle Sam to stay out of their vehicle purchasing options."

The Pew polling from May 2022 showed a majority of Americans are in favor of electric vehicle incentives.

'Job-Killing Executive Orders'

Rhetoric around threats to people's jobs—whether those fears are justified or not—also echoes and repeats certain key narratives.

The Pew polling shows a narrow majority of Americans, 53 percent, say stricter environmental controls are worth the cost, compared with 45 percent who say they will cost too many jobs and harm the economy.

However, the proportion of those who are worried about the cost of such policies is rising on both sides of the political spectrum, up by 12 percentage points since 2019. This includes about three-quarters of Republicans.

These genuine fears are reflected in the kind of language some Republicans are using, which often touches on certain key phrases.

"Biden's relentless insistence to go green will stop nothing short of seizing control of your home thermostats," Boebert wrote in September 2022. In 2021, she claimed that 10 million jobs were "at risk as a result of Biden's job-killing executive orders."

Biggs and Paul Gosar, an Arizona congressman, have said various climate-related policies will "kill American jobs." Bishop wrote that the "far left expects you to lay your job down at the altar of climate change." Newsweek has contacted Gosar for comment.

There is some basis for such fears, at least in certain industries. According to a World Economic Forum report, globally 3 million jobs will be lost because of the transition to greener economies by 2030, although these will be offset by the 13 million jobs the renewables sector will create. Researchers have also suggested that climate policy is less likely to have an impact on the fossil fuels sector than market responses to cheaper natural gas alternatives.

Forsyth said it nonetheless illustrated how debates about the climate are "twisted according to older worries, older debates, and therefore get distorted."

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) is pictured in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on February 1, 2023. He has said climate policies will "kill American jobs."

ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

In the U.S., there have already been "significant shifts" in the energy sector from coal to natural gas and renewables, Rabe said.

"With that comes both economic disruption, but also some really significant economic opportunities," he added. "So the challenge becomes taking advantage of those emerging developing technologies, where the U.S. has so much capacity, and building on it to try to really develop a more robust and diversified economy going forward."

Speaking from Detroit—"where tens of thousands of people's livelihoods are based on internal combustion engines"—he said that, understandably, part of resistance to the transition came from "those who see themselves as losers in this," and there was uncertainty about how the transition to a green economy will be managed.

Mark Maslin, professor of earth system sciences at University College London, noted that there are around 10 million people employed in the U.S. green economy, compared with around 40,000 in coal.

"So if you want to boost employment and you want people to be happy, you boost the green economy," he said.

Forsyth argued that scientific reports on climate focus on how it is changing, and conversations about how to improve the economy and retain jobs "need to sing through more loudly," as climate deniers or skeptics seek to "stop that debate from happening or frame it in ways which already point to the outcome they want."

Norfolk Island declares red alert as cyclone Gabrielle approaches

Online News EditorFebruary 11, 2023

 

Sydney, Australia, Feb 11 (EFE).- The authorities of the remote Norfolk Island, located in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand, declared a red alert on Saturday due to the imminent arrival of a powerful cyclone.

“Prepare to move to the strongest part of your house, or if you need to, relocate to the Emergency Shelter at Rawson Hall,” the Emergency Management Norfolk Island (EMNI) said in a statement.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on social media that tropical cyclone Gabrielle was approaching Norfolk Island – located about 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) northeast of Sydney – “with conditions deteriorating this afternoon with destructive winds, very rough surf and heavy rain.”

Eric Hutchinson, the administrator of the Norfolk Islands – which has a population of about 2,000 – told public broadcaster ABC “power outages, trees coming down, the potential for houses to lose roofs” was expected due to strong winds.

After passing through the remote Australian island, Gabrielle, currently category 2 – out of a maximum of 5 -, will head to the north of New Zealand, which is still recovering from the devastating floods that occurred at the end of January.

The Norfolk Island territory, which is made up of three islands and is a popular tourist destination, was a convict settlement between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, where the worst convicts of Australia, then a British colony, were sent until it was vacated after a riot.

It remained uninhabited until 1856, when a group of settlers, descendants of Tahitians and relatives of the earlier mutineers, settled in the place, recognized as a non-mainland Australian territory in 1979. EFE

aus-nc/pd

STALE OLD STALINISM 

Nicaragua orders citizenship revocation of 222 political prisoners sent to US

Online News EditorFebruary 10, 2023

 

Tegucigalpa/Washington, Feb 10 (EFE).- Nicaraguan authorities on Friday ordered the stripping of the citizenship of 222 political prisoners who were expelled to the United States, according to a ruling by the Managua appeals court.

“We have ordered the stripping of Nicaraguan nationality of 222 people who were declared traitors to the country,” the court ruling said.

The resolution, read by magistrate Octavio Rothschuh of Chamber One of the appeals court, indicated that the decision was based on the “Special Law that governs the stripping of Nicaraguan nationality,” which was approved and published Friday in the Official Gazette.

“Hence, the stripping of nationality of 222 traitors to the homeland was in strict compliance with Law 1145, which we will continue to apply in full force,” the court said.

Prior to this special law, Nicaragua’s parliament approved in its first legislature an amendment to the constitution to strip citizens convicted of crimes considered “treason against one’s country” of their nationality.

That amendment still must be approved in a second legislature for it to enter into force next year, the president of the parliament, Gustavo Porras, explained Friday on the country’s Channel 4 television.

The constitutional amendment and the special law were approved the same day that the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists, priests and critics of the government of President Daniel Ortega, were released and expelled to the US on Thursday.

The prisoners, among them seven who sought to run against Ortega for the presidency in the last election, were permanently disqualified from public office, other elected offices, and their citizen rights were suspended for life, according to the court sentence issued on Thursday.

The Political Constitution of Nicaragua establishes in its article 20, which has not been amended, that “no national can be deprived of his nationality. The status of Nicaraguan national is not lost by the acquisition of another nationality.”

Nicaragua has been experiencing political and social crises since April 2018, which worsened after the controversial general elections of Nov. 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second together with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice president, with his main contenders put in prison or fleeing into exile.

The Organization of American States has demanded that the Ortega government in Nicaragua restore the rights of the 222 political prisoners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter Friday that “Following the release of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners yesterday, today I spoke with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Moncada about the importance of constructive dialogue toward building a better future for the Nicaraguan people.”

The US has sanctioned hundreds of people linked to the Ortega government and had been asking Nicaragua for months to release the political prisoners, whose repression by the authorities has greatly strained relations between the two nations.

“Ortega’s corrupt security and judicial system arrested these individuals for practicing independent journalism, working for civil society organizations, seeking to compete in elections, and publicly expressing an opinion contrary to government orthodoxy, among other activities considered normal in a free society,” Blinken said in January 2022 in an announcement of visa restrictions “on 116 individuals complicit in undermining democracy in Nicaragua.”

On Friday, the 222 prisoners were welcomed to the US, where they received a humanitarian permit that will allow them to live and work in the country. EFE

mg-jdg/tw

South Korean students’ exchange visit to US city nixed over dog meat tradition

Ganghwa county planned to send 12 high schoolers to New Jersey’s Palisades Park to experience a different culture for three weeks

The city ditched the programme after coming under pressure from US animal rights who highlighted South Korea’s infamous dog farms

The Korea Times
Published: 11 Feb, 2023

South Koreans protest in a cage against the selling and eating of dog meat in Seoul. File photo: AFP

A proposed programme for high school students of Ganghwa county, Incheon, that would send them to the US borough of Palisades Park, New Jersey, for foreign language and culture education, has failed to get off the ground due to negative public opinion there regarding South Korea’s tradition of eating dog meat, which was raised by animal rights activists in the US, according to county officials on Friday.

The county planned to send 12 high school students to the US borough with which it has maintained friendly relations since 2020 to engage in the programme.

The programme aimed to give South Korean students opportunities to learn English and experience a different culture for three weeks. It was originally expected to take place in December.

Dog meat trade on the slow decline in South Korea
30 Dec 2019


However, last June, Palisades Park abruptly informed Ganghwa county of their intention to suspend cooperation regarding the programme, stating that the decision was unavoidable as it faced negative public opinion due to South Korea’s dog farms, where dogs are raised for meat, in Ganghwa county.

US animal rights activists who learned about South Korea’s dog meat farms via social media reportedly asked the US borough’s authorities to cease its exchanges with the Korean county.

An official from Ganghwa county expressed regret over the failed programme, saying that it was a result of cultural differences.

Major dog meat market closes down in South Korea, over 80 dogs rescued

“The tour programme was changed to take place in Thailand, and efforts to do further exchanges with Palisades Park will continue,” the official said.

While in modern South Korea societal attitudes towards animals are shifting, with a high proportion of the population keeping dogs as domestic pets, the country’s infamous dog farms and dog meat restaurants are still operating.

This article was first published on The Korea Times

 

Balloon case demonstrates US hysteria vis-à-vis China

By Chen Weihua

China Daily, February 11, 2023

The Joe Biden administration's handling of the Chinese balloon case last week was meant to showcase the United States' strategic strength amid fierce attacks by Republicans and the low approval ratings of US officials. But instead it has shown to the world how immature and irresponsible — indeed hysterical — the US has been in dealing with the case.

To begin with, many US officials, media outlets and political pundits claim it was a "spy balloon" despite not having any evidence to back up their claim and regardless of China explaining that it was a balloon for research, mainly meteorological research, which went out of control and deviated far from its planned course due to strong winds.

For at least a week, the whole US has been obsessed with the Chinese civilian balloon, as US politicians and media projected it as a grave threat to US national security. But they should realize that it does not make sense for China to spy on the US using a balloon the size of three school buses while modern surveillance satellites can do a much better job, and surreptitiously too.

Speaking of spying, no country employs surveillance more widely and aggressively than the US, including its frequent military surveillance flights near China's shores, which even people such as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski regarded as provocative. How would the US respond if China were to conduct frequent surveillance flights off the coast of California, New York or Florida?

The Biden administration's decisions on the balloon episode were hijacked by US domestic politics. Republicans, from new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to Senator Marco Rubio, have spared no efforts to attack Biden for "being weak" in handling the case. The fierce attacks came just days before Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday, at a time when public opinions are not in his favor.

The latest Gallup poll shows that most Americans remain unhappy with the way things are going in the US. Only 23 percent say they are satisfied, while 76 percent say they are dissatisfied, including 48 percent who are "very dissatisfied".

Biden's approval rating in the second year in office is only 41 percent, among the lowest since president John F. Kennedy and only slightly higher than Donald Trump's 40.4 percent.

All these have prompted the Biden administration to overreact to the balloon incident, including dispatching an F-22 fighter jet on Saturday to shoot down the civilian balloon with an AIM 9X Sidewinder missile worth $400,000 as well as "postponing" a trip of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing.

That has set a very bad precedent for the two countries in terms of handling similar cases in the future. Just remember, China didn't fire at the real US military spy plane, EP3, when it made an emergency landing in China's Hainan island on April 1, 2001, without any permission from the Chinese authorities.

For years, China and the US have been trying to establish targeted mechanisms to avoid misjudgments and miscalculations, especially between the US and Chinese militaries to prevent accidents from spiraling into a conflict or confrontation.

Resorting to force and shooting down a civilian research balloon that veered off course is clearly not a responsible and proper way of handling such a case. As the world's two largest economies, the US and China should increase communication and mutual understanding so that they can better handle such cases in the future.

The US should have dealt with the balloon case in a calm and responsible way without letting it being hijacked by the bitter domestic partisan politics because a conflict between the two countries would spell disaster for the entire world.

(The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.)

Indo-US joint exercise included "Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) terror response"

New Delhi, Feb 11: In a first, Indo-US joint exercise included "Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) terror response" as part of its drill in the ongoing Indo-US joint exercise, Indian Express reported.

"Joint Counter Terror exercise b/w NSG & US Special Operations Forces (SOF) will culminate at #Chennai on 14th Feb after 4 weeks of intense trg & joint anti-terror exercises. The highlight of the Ex was mock drills for CBRN terror response by the two Spl forces," the NSG said in a tweet

"The Joint Exercise, for the first time, simulated a validation exercise for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) terror response mission. During the mock validation exercise, a terrorist organisation armed with chemical agents threatened to attack a convention hall during an international summit. The objective of the joint exercise by NSG and US (SOF) teams was to rapidly neutralise the terrorists, rescue the hostages safely and deactivate the chemical weapons being carried by the terrorists," an official was quoted by The Indian Express.

Read more at: https://www.oneindia.com/india/in-a-first-india-us-conduct-drills-on-nuke-chemical-bio-terror-attacks-prevention-gen-3522326.html?story=3