Vietnamese oil tanker seized by Iran now free in open waters Taiwan’s Defense Ministry Reveals More Than 600 US Troops Visited Island Since 2019 China holds combat readiness patrol as U.S. lawmakers visit Taiwan China's gray zone threats aimed at 'seizing Taiwan without a fight': MND US military tries out Israeli tricks for anti-China defense in Guam Joe Biden extends investment ban on firms Washington says are linked to China’s military EU lawmakers raise alarm on China’s efforts to ‘interfere in European democracies’ PLA at China-India border has upgraded logistics to brave winter "We won't start a war" Lukashenko on tensions with Poland over migrants Centuries-old Mona Lisa copy to go under the hammer in Paris A Vietnamese oil tanker earlier seized by Iran was free in open water Wednesday, ending the latest maritime confrontation involving Tehran amid stalled negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. The Sothys left a position off Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and had reached international waters in the nearby Gulf of Oman early Wednesday, data analyzed by The Associated Press from MarineTraffic.com showed. The vessel appeared anchored there, but there was no information about its crew. Shahrokh Nazemi, a spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, told the AP on Wednesday that “Sothys left Iranian waters last night after transferring the oil.” Hundreds of US troops have traveled to Taiwan over the past two years for more than 100 different training programs, while an almost equal number of Taiwanese forces went to the US for the same, the Ministry of National Defense reported in its 2021 National Defense Report.
According to the biennial report viewed by the South China Morning Post, nearly 2,800 US and Taiwanese troops were involved in 384 exchange programs between September 2019 and August 2021 That includes 542 Taiwanese military personnel who came to the US for 175 different programs, and 618 US troops who took part in 107 programs on the island of Taiwan. The report also notes 1,639 personnel from both militaries were involved in 102 other programs, but didn’t state where they took place. That’s a significant increase over the roughly two dozen US Special Forces and US Marines operatives the Wall Street Journal revealed last month had been on the island for more than a year. The news, which provoked outrage in Beijing, was unexpectedly confirmed by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, during In a separate story that broke on Monday, a Pentagon staffing sheet obtained by Foreign Policy magazine shows that US personnel have been stationed on Taiwan since as early as 2008 Their numbers are relatively small, sometimes as few as seven or as many as 30, but nonetheless provocative. China's military said on Tuesday it had conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, after its defence ministry condemned a visit to Taiwan by a U.S. congressional delegation it said had arrived on a military aircraft. The patrol was aimed at the "seriously wrong" words and actions of "relevant countries" on the Taiwan issue and the activities of pro-independence forces in Taiwan, a Chinese military spokesperson said in a statement.
Taiwan's defence ministry said six Chinese military aircraft entered its southwestern air defence zone on Tuesday, including four J-16 fighter jets and two surveillance planes. Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said the joint combat readiness patrols implied the Eastern Theatre Command was preparing to be able to respond quickly to any intervention from foreign forces amid the escalating and complex cross-strait tensions. Several Taiwan media outlets reported on Tuesday that unspecified members from both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate had arrived in Taipei on a U.S. military plane. The latest military manoeuvre came as US lawmakers – including Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama – were making an unannounced visit to the island on a US Navy C-40A plane.
When asked about the visit, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Wednesday that Taiwan-U.S. relations are "very important" and that he respects "mutual visits between friends". The government will make "appropriate arrangement" based on each others' need, he said, without elaborating. In Washington, the Pentagon said it was not uncommon for congressional delegations to be transported in military aircraft.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in its latest report Tuesday that China's gray zone threats are an attempt to ultimately seize Taiwan "without a fight." The "ROC National Defense Report 2021," released simultaneously in English and Chinese for the first time, included a section that detailed the risks of China's cyberwarfare and cognitive warfare threats against Taiwan. That military approach has taken the form of frequent intrusions by Chinese aircraft into the southwestern corner of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and military drills in the vicinity of the Dongsha Islands, the report said. The non-military approach has been evident in actions such as China speedboats ramming Taiwan's coastguard vessels and the illegal operations of China's sand pump dredgers in waters near Taiwan, the MND said in the report.
"These approaches have normally exploited the limbo between peace and war and (have veered) on the brink of a war," the report stated. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is considered to be gradually escalating the threat level by "manipulating these salami tactics and is using its political and military power to shape a posture to its advantage," the report said. Such intimidation tactics not only stretch Taiwan's combat power and shake its faith and morale, but also attempt to alter or challenge the status quo in the Taiwan Strait to ultimately achieve China's goal of "seizing Taiwan without a fight," according to the MND report. It said the PRC continues to increase its defense budget, pouring more resources into its defense and military modernization.
"With more diversified strategies and approaches towards Taiwan at its disposal, the PRC is undertaking a variety of military incursions to test our early warning and response system and carry on its military intimidation and pressure against us," the MND said. The US has been reportedly testing the Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense system on the Pacific island of Guam, which hosts the closest American military bases to China. The ongoing tests in Guam are scheduled to continue until December, the Wall Street Journal has reported, without expanding on how successful they’ve been.
The Iron Dome system has been in service in Israel for a decade now, destroying thousands of makeshift projectiles fired by Hamas militants at the territory of the Jewish state. Designed to intercept short-range rockets, artillery shells and drones, the all- weather air defense system won’t be much use against the hypersonic warhead recently tested by China. But its deployment in Guam comes as part of a larger effort by the Pentagon to boost defenses on the island amid tensions with China over Taiwan and China’s growing influence in the Pacific region overall.
Guam is a US unincorporated territory located some 4,700 kilometers from China. The island, which hosts several US Navy and Air Force bases, as well as around 190,000 American civilians and military personnel, appears to be a logical target for a first strike by the Chinese if a conflict breaks out between Washington and Beijing. Iron Dome, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, was put in service in Israel in 2011 The system had been significantly expanded in later years through US funding. After a heated debate in September, the US Congress approved another $1 billion to replenish Iron Dome after a flare-up with Hamas in May, which saw more than 4,000 projectiles targeting Israel. The Americans purchased two Iron Dome batteries from Israel in 2019, cashing out $373 million for them. One had been sent to Guam, with the other remaining on the US mainland.
The Pentagon first tested Iron Dome at its White Sands range in New Mexico this summer. It successfully shot down a number of targets, including drones, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry. A third meeting before the end of the year was agreed upon in Zurich last month when US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the Communist Party of China’s foreign policy chief. Biden and other American dignitaries attacked China for its absence at the UN climate summit in Glasgow. US President Joe Biden on Tuesday extended a ban that prohibits American investments in Chinese companies that have alleged ties with the Chinese military.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernisation of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, which continues to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas,” Biden said in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Biden said the ban, which was first announced by former president Donald Trump through an executive order in November 2020, will remain in effect beyond November 12, 2021 The extension followed an expansion in June when Biden added nearly a dozen Chinese firms and their subsidiaries to the list, raising the total number of blacklisted companies to 59 The additions included China General Nuclear Power Corp and plastic pipe maker Aerosun Corp. American investors are prohibited from buying new securities in these blacklisted companies on American markets and will be given a year to divest existing holdings.
The Biden administration has continued the hardline approach against China. The president said in the letter on Tuesday that the Chinese government uses its national strategy of military-civil fusion to compel civilian Chinese companies to support its military and intelligence activities. European lawmakers have raised the alarm over what they say are Beijing’s growing efforts to disrupt democratic processes in the EU, amid a smattering of instances of alleged Chinese political interference across the bloc. At a hearing in Brussels on Tuesday, a special committee looking at outside interference and disinformation at the European Parliament urged the European Union to do more to counter the perceived threat, demanding a special task force be established for “monitoring interference coming from China”.
The recommendation comes after the committee sent a delegation to Taipei last week to “study Taiwanese experiences in addressing interference and manipulation campaigns”. In a sign of the rising anxiety about Beijing, the committee’s 33-page draft report contained 40 references to China, more than twice the number of mentions made of Russia, which has long dominated the debate on foreign interference and disinformation in Brussels and other European capitals. The report’s lead author, Sandra Kalniete, a Latvian MEP and former foreign minister, said the EU was failing to keep up with technologically sophisticated adversaries, comparing efforts to contain disinformation and interference to “using a race car to catch up with a rocket ship”.
She called on the EU to create a specific sanctions regime related to “foreign interference and disinformation campaigns orchestrated by foreign state actors”. Chinese frontline troops at the China-India border are getting prepared in logistics for the upcoming winter, with several new measures and facilities revealed for the first time to improve the living and working condition of officers and soldiers, which have further boosted their morale as well as the capability to patrol and execute tasks in the high-altitude region during harsh weather. Observers noted that although large-scale clashes are unlikely to occur in winter, small frictions may happen from time to time. This means that logistics is a key factor for border troops to overcome the winter, and in this area China has big advantages over India.
Indian media reported recently that Indian troops are facing challenges in confronting the harsh winter, and the cost to maintain its deployment could be huge, as the government is urged to either build or improve facilities and infrastructure. New technologies and innovations have been put into practice for border defense. A border regiment commander said that modern detection devices allow Chinese soldiers to observe situations inside military posts. Frontline troops can also collect and manage information with modern command systems.
In order to solve the oxygen deficient problem, portable oxygenators, oxygen chambers and individual oxygen supply devices are in widespread use for frontline troops. Barracks on the high-altitude plateau are operated and heated with multiple energy sources such as coal, electricity and solar power. Any official protest zones at the Beijing Winter Olympics will depend on local public health measures against COVID-19 at the time of next February's Games, the head of the IOC's co-ordination commission said on Tuesday (November 9). Human rights activists have targeted the February 4-20 Games over China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its northwest. China rejects accusations of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission chair for Beijing 2022, told reporters the right to protest was enshrined in the host city contract. "Those are the strict set of rules that we have to rule the relationship between ourselves and the organising committee, with one caveat at this stage. We have COVID. And COVID changes many things," he said. "It's still work in progress how these necessary commitments will materialise. Again, it depends very much on how COVID evolves in China and in the venues between now and when the Games happen." International visitors are banned from attending the Games but, unlike this year's rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics where all fans were ruled out due to the pandemic, locals will be allowed in. IOC Sports Director Christophe Dubi joined Samaranch for Tuesday's webinar with reporters, with both facing questions about human rights and defending the need for the Games to go ahead. "This is what we do, we celebrate humanity. We are about building bridges. We're about extending hands across the table. And I say this is probably what the world is in need at present," said Dubi.
"We should not erect walls, or build on tensions which are already many across the globe... United States Vice President Kamala Harris visited Institut Pasteur in Paris on Tuesday (November 9) on the first of a four-day visit aimed at restoring ties strained by a submarine deal that left France in the lurch. The schedule includes a one-on-one sit-down with Macron on Wednesday (November 10).
it is also an incredible statement about the history, of the relationship between France and the United States on many issues, but particularly on scientific research. Some of the most significant discoveries in science on any issue from rabies, to HIV/AIDS, to breast cancer, to MRNA and what we do in vaccines and pandemics, They start out with a hypothesis, and then they test it out, knowing invariably, you try something for the first time, there will be glitches, there will be mistakes, then everyone gets together, no one gets beat up about it, you analyse it, what went wrong, re-evaluate, update the hypothesis and start again. And then, the environment is such that we are expected to defend The Plan, even when the first time we roll it out, there may be glitches and it's time to re-evaluate, and then do it again." According to a new poll commissioned by USA Today, only 28% of Americans approve of how Harris has performed in the position voters elected her into one year ago.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday (November 9) that Belarus tries not to escalate the migrant crisis near the border with Poland. Lukashenko accused the Polish side of trying to intimidate Belarus by moving large military forces closer to the border. Poland and other EU member states accuse Belarus of encouraging illegal migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa to cross the border into the EU in revenge for sanctions already slapped on Minsk over human rights abuses. Hundreds of migrants shivered in freezing temperatures and huddled around campfires on the Belarusian border with Poland on Tuesday in front of razor- wire fences and lines of Polish border guards blocking their entry into the European Union. The EU called on Tuesday (November 9) on Belarus to stop "instrumentalising" migrants massed on the border with member state Poland, saying it was preparing new sanctions to further pressure President Alexander Lukashenko. The Commission estimated that 2,000 people were currently stranded at the border between Poland and Belarus.
"The president (of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen) demanded... that Belarus stops the instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes, which is putting people's lives at risk", European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant told a news briefing, citing a written statement published by the presidency. The Commission said it was monitoring airline activity between third countries and Belarus to prevent more migrants being encouraged to travel to the bloc's border by the government in Minsk, which a spokesperson said was happening through official channels. A Kenyan court on Tuesday (November 9) ordered the husband of slain Kenyan Olympian Agnes Tirop, who has been arraigned on suspicion of her murder, to undergo a mental health test before entering a plea, which he will do on Nov. 16
Ibrahim Rotich, 41, appeared in court in Iten wearing handcuffs. Tirop was found stabbed to death in her home in the Rift Valley town of Iten on Oct. 13, in an incident that has shone the spotlight on violence against women in Kenya. Rotich, was arrested the following day in the coastal city of Mombasa. Police said he had been trying to flee the country.
Neither Rotich, nor his representatives, have made any public comments on the case. In September, Tirop smashed the women-only 10km world record in Germany. She won bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships in the 10,000m. Tirop grew up in a humble farming family in the Kenyan highlands in Nandi County. Her talent for running became apparent in fourth grade, when she won a cross-country race and she soon entered into and won international juniors races. Her career had been on the rise ever since.
After her killing, police found in her home an athletics trophy that she had yet to unwrap. Agnes Tirop, was buried on October 23, at a funeral attended by over 1,000 mourners. Her funeral in Iten, was held on the day she would have turned 26 A former U.S. marine has gone on hunger strike in Russia to protest against his incarceration and the violation of his rights, according to his family. Trevor Reed, who is serving a nine-year jail sentence, was convicted last year of endangering the lives of two policemen while drunk in Moscow. Reed denies the charge, describing it as a political move. Washington has called the trial a "theater of the absurd."
Releasing a statement late on Monday (November 9), Reed’s family said the former marine had begun a hunger strike “to protest his arbitrary detention and Russian authorities' numerous and flagrant violations of his basic human rights and his rights under Russian law”. Although the family did not say how long the hunger strike was planned for, they urged U.S. authorities to support Reed and give him the same attention as high profile Russian dissidents, such as Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The U.S. embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bad weather and rough seas brought another day of worsening conditions for 306 migrants on board the Ocean Viking rescue ship in the central Mediterranean on Wednesday (October 10). Crew members on Ocean Viking, run by European charity SOS Mediterranee, are concerned by the conditions on board after days of heavy rain and strong winds, and said they have made multiple requests to maritime authorities for a safe port to land. The migrants were rescued last week during various rescue operations of boats in distress, including an overcrowded rubber dinghy of 94 migrants that was taking in water in international waters off Libya. "In addition to caring for people with severe fuel burns and infants needing regular care, we are concerned about the toll of spending more time aboard in this weather. We are a floating ambulance, not a hospital," SOS Mediterranee tweeted, quoting an IFRC doctor named Jane. North Korea state media reported on Wednesday (November 10) that shops were being disinfected and health workers were discussed anti-virus measures.
In video provided by North Korea's official news agency KCNA, employees of Kyonghung shop were seen spraying disinfectant and checking body temperatures of customers while providing hand sanitizer to them. Officials of Phothonggang district hygienic and anti-epidemic centre said they have boosted anti-virus measures to prevent the spread of respiratory diseases as the weather gets cold, according to KCNA. North Korea has not officially reported a single coronavirus case, but it has imposed strict anti-virus measures, including border closures and domestic travel curbs, and experts have said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out. A faithful copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of the world's most recognisable portraits, sold for 210,000 euros ($242,634.00) at a Paris auction on Tuesday (November 9).
Leonardo's original, which French King Francois I bought from the painter in 1518, can be found in Paris' Louvre museum, drawing huge crowds to see its enigmatic smile. Artcurial had estimated that the copy, dating from around 1600 and looking strikingly similar to the original, which is not for sale, would fetch 150,000- 200,000 euros. In June, a European collector bought another 17th century copy of Mona Lisa for 2.9 million euros, a record for a reproduction of the work, at Christie's in Paris. In 2017, Christie's New York sold Leonardo's "Salvator Mundi" for a record $450 million.
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2021-11-12