* Turkey is in the process of buying Russia's S-400 missile system and America's most expensive weapons system, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. * The S-400 missile system, which is equipped with eight launchers and 32 missiles, is capable of targeting stealth warplanes like the F-35 jet. * "My best military advice would be that we don't then follow through with the F-35, flying it or working with allies that are working with Russian systems, particularly air defense systems," Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. European Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
WASHINGTON — The United States should not follow through with a multi-billion dollar weapons sale of F-35 jets to Turkey, if Ankara takes delivery of an advanced Russian missile system, the top U.S. military commander for Europe told Congress on Tuesday.
"My best military advice would be that we don't then follow through with the F-35, flying it or working with allies that are working with Russian systems, particularly air defense systems," Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. European Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
WASHINGTON — The United States needs more firepower and focus to push back against ever-increasing Russian aggression across Europe and beyond, according to the top U.S. commander in Europe.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, European Command's Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti called Russia the primary threat to stability in Europe and recommended the U.S. boost the number of troops it deploys to the continent on both a permanent and rotational basis.
Scaparrotti said he was particularly concerned about insufficient intelligence and surveillance capabilities, as well as a shrinking advantage on the high seas.
F/A-18C Hornets assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115 prepare to be refueled during Integrated Training Exercise 1-18 over Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 28, 2017. (Staff Sgt. Kowshon Ye/ Marine Corps)
Two F/A-18s collided in midair over the sprawling Twentynine Palms, California, Marine training base on Feb. 28, according to military officials.
The two Hornets involved in the accident are from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
They both managed to land safely after "experiencing a mid-air incident" over Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, 1st Lt. Fredrick D. Walker, a spokesman for 3rd MAW, told Marine Corps Times. "No personnel were injured."
Bu Jianjie (pictured), the head of the 718 Research Institute under the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) has been expelled from the Communist Party and is facing trial
'As a leading party cadre, Bu Jianjie lost his ideals and beliefs, (and) succumbed to greed,' the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection says.
Adding another strange wrinkle to Canada-China relations, a Chinese official who oversaw research on his country's burgeoning naval-submarine fleet has been placed under arrest in China and accused of illegally obtaining Canadian citizenship.
Bu Jianjie, who reportedly spent time as a visiting scholar at two Ontario universities in the mid-1990s, has also been charged with various corruption-related crimes and expelled from the Communist party.
The Canadian citizenship accusation stems from China's ban on holding dual nationalities. Despite being a scientist with access to naval-defence technology and apparent citizenship from a Western country, however, authorities have not charged him with spying.
Richardson International's licence to ship canola revoked, escalating trade tensions
A major Canadian canola exporter has had its registration to ship canola seeds to China revoked, the latest flare-up in a diplomatic and trade dispute between the two countries.
A Chinese customs document dated March 1 says the country has cancelled Winnipeg-based agricultural handler Richardson International's registration. That means the company is forbidden to export canola seeds to the country.
"Richardson has been directly targeted," vice-president Jean-Marc Ruest told CBC News. "We think this is part of a larger Canada-China issue, and we hope it gets resolved expeditiously."
WNU Editor: China is putting pressure on Canada over its detention of Huawei Executive Meng Wanzhou, and this is going the first of many economic actions against Canada.
More News On China Halting Canola Shipments From Canada
For a man named by Forbes as the world's most powerful person, there's been little transparency as to how Xi Jinping accrued so much power in such a relatively short amount of time.
China's President was almost unknown to the world just over a decade ago — even his folk singer wife, Peng Liyuan, was far more renowned than the trailblazing political statesman.
But over the last 50 years Mr Xi — the son of a powerful communist revolutionary — strategically used his personal life narrative as a cave-dwelling farmer during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and '70s to grant himself political validation as he rose steadily but patiently through ranks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) right to the top.
The world is entering a new Cold War as China and the US go head-to-head for the title of dominant economic superpower, high-profile British historian Niall Ferguson has warned.
"We're now looking at something much more than just tariffs," he told The Business.
"If you look at the battle that has broken out over the Chinese telecoms company Huawei, you see it has something of the features of the Cold War.
"There is also defence element to it — the Chinese are building a lot of weaponry which is probably designed to challenge American pre-eminence in the Asia-Pacific, so tick that box."
WNU Editor: This Cold War .... if it does become a Cold War .... will not resemble the nuclear tensions that existed during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. It is going to be something different.
* China on Tuesday set its 2019 defense spending at 7.5 percent higher than a year ago — or 1.19 trillion yuan ($177.61 billion). * That's lower than the 8.1 percent growth in 2018 and far below double-digit increases of previous years — though analysts have long questioned how accurately the budget reflects actual spending. * But slower growth in defense spending doesn't mean ongoing military tensions with the U.S. have ceased, warned Timothy Heath, senior international defense researcher at U.S. think tank Rand Corporation.
China announced Tuesday that military spending will grow at a slower pace than last year, but one analyst cautioned that it should not be interpreted to mean that military tensions with the United States will ease.
At its annual parliamentary meeting, the National People's Congress, Beijing set its 2019 defense spending at 7.5 percent higher than a year ago — or 1.19 trillion yuan ($177.61 billion).
That's lower than the 8.1 percent growth in 2018 and far below double-digit increases of previous years — though analysts have long questioned how accurately the budget reflects actual spending.
Questions still remain over whether India shot down a Pakistani jet, but the planes on both sides perform quite differently.
Can an old MiG-21 aircraft destroy a more modern F-16? Yes, in fact an Indian pilot flying a version of the MiG-21 called Bison allegedly shot down a Pakistani F-16 using a Russian R-73 Vympel air to air missile, known as a high off bore-sight air-to-air weapon.
For the record, Pakistan continues to deny one of its F-16s was shot down. But denials notwithstanding, the evidence seems increasingly compelling against Pakistan's denial.
The R-73, a short-range missile, can be controlled by a helmet-mounted sight, allowing the pilot to look to his right or left and launch a missile that will turn in the direction the pilot's head is pointing. Later Russian aircraft including the MiG-29 had a helmet-mounted site (HMS) called the Shchel-3UM.
King Salman said to have been angered by recent moves by Prince Mohammed against him
There are growing signs of a potentially destabilising rift between the king of Saudi Arabia and his heir, the Guardian has been told.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are understood to have disagreed over a number of important policy issues in recent weeks, including the war in Yemen.
The unease is said to have been building since the murder in Turkey of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA has reportedly concluded was ordered by Prince Mohammed. However, these tensions increased dramatically in late February when the king, 83, visited Egypt and was warned by his advisers he was at risk of a potential move against him, according to a detailed account from a source.
WNU Editor: I follow Saudi politics very closely, and I do not see any rift. The Crown Prince is many things, but he does not strike me as a person who would usurp the power of his father and King at this moment in time. The Crown Prince is already ruling the Kingdom in all but name, so why destabilize a situation that would only benefit your opponents. So why the Guardian post reporting on rumours of a rift? My gut tells me that that this report is nothing more but wishful thinking from those who oppose the Crown Prince, and who are hoping that there is a rift.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un waves before boarding his train at the Dong Dang railway station in Lang Son on March 2. Photo: Vietnam News Agency/AFP
* When Kim, surrounded by lavish praise and rapt attention, took care to avoid dropping cigarette ash or a match on his host's land, it was a reminder that China's place atop the hierarchy of communist East Asia is as strong as ever
The US-North Korea summit in Hanoi produced little more than photo ops, but much can be learned from the logistics of the affair. What looked at first glance like material for comedians – Kim Jong-un's 60-hour journey to Vietnam by train – may be one of the summit's inadvertent points of success. Not for US President Donald Trump or the North Korean leader, but for China.
Beijing's transport support to Kim went beyond the technical to the symbolic; as this train chugged across a country vast in territory, rich in history and bulging with economic resources, Kim had only to look out of the window to realise China remains a viable alternative to the US when it comes to brokering political survival. Beijing, in return, received ritual respect, firming up the sense of North Korea as a tributary state while making clear to the US that the hermit kingdom can't be dealt with without China.
The second session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua
* Value-added taxes cut more than expected. State firms have to hand in more profits to bridge fiscal shortfall * Defence budget growth slashed from 8.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent
China on Tuesday set its economic growth target of 6.0 to 6.5 per cent for 2019, down from last year's target of "about 6.5 per cent."
The figure was revealed in the government work report to be delivered by Premier Li Keqiang as the National People's Congress opens.
A separate report will announce the targeted defence budget.
This annual gathering of China's political elite comes a year after President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to remove a presidential term limit and ahead of the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule later this year.
* The top US general in Europe told Congress Tuesday that he needs more firepower to counter Russia. * He requested more ground troops, a robust naval presence, more cyber assets, and increased intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. * "I am not comfortable yet with the deterrent posture that we have in Europe," Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, said, warning that Russia's military modernization erodes America's advantages.
The top US general in Europe told Congress Tuesday that he needs a lot more firepower to counter the threat from Russia.
"I am not comfortable yet with the deterrent posture that we have in Europe," Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, told the Senate Armed Services Committee, Stars and Stripes reported.
"While the US maintains a global military superiority over Russia, evolving Russian capabilities threaten to erode our competitive military advantage," he explained. He told lawmakers there continue to be shortfalls across all warfighting domains.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are driven past the stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other high-ranking officials during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korean intelligence agencies have detected signs that North Korea is restoring part of a missile launch site it began to dismantle after pledging to do so in a first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last year, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Yonhap quoted lawmakers briefed by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) as saying that the work was taking place at the Tongchang-ri launch site and involved replacing a roof and a door at the facility.
The Yonhap report did not say when the work was detected, but news of it comes days after a second summit on denuclearization between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke down last week in Hanoi over differences on how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease sanctions.
Civil-defense personnel remove wreckage from an Indian air force MiG-21 Bison aircraft after it crashed in Kashmir, August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Danish Ismail
* The shortcomings of India's fighter aircraft were put on display in an aerial engagement with Pakistan last week. * The blemish comes as New Delhi grapples with a long-delayed fighter-replacement program. * The incident may compel India's leaders to speed that program up — and benefit US defense firms in the process.
The dilapidated state of the Indian Air Force was thrown into sharp relief last week when Pakistan shot down an Indian pilot flying a Russian-made MiG-21 Bison, a fighter jet first flown in 1956.
The pilot ejected safely into Pakistani territory and was captured by the Pakistan Army. Islamabad released the airman a couple days later in an effort to de-escalate a crisis that began when a Pakistan-based militant group killed more than 40 Indian security officers in a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in India-controlled Kashmir.
An F-35C Lightning II test aircraft conducts the first separation of a Joint Standoff Weapon C from an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. (U.S. Navy via Raytheon)
DARPA wants weapons that can counterattack enemy forces and buy the U.S. time.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is researching new long-range smart weapons designed to devastate attacking enemy forces, buying time for the U.S. to send reinforcements in a hypothetical future engagement.
The program, known as "Assault Breaker II," mirrors a Cold War era program designed to stop Soviet armored spearheads poised to roll into Western Europe. The effort would consist of a combination of long-range sensors and bombers loaded with smart weapons designed to seek out and destroy tanks, ships, and other enemy systems.
April 9, 2016: A pair of U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, taxi after landing at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. (Reuters/Air Force)
The U.S. has flown a B-52 bomber mission near disputed islands in the South China Sea, according to U.S. Pacific Air Forces.
The last reported B-52 mission in the vicinity of the South China Sea was in November.
"Two B-52H Stratofortress bombers took off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and participated in routine training missions, March 4, 2019," said a statement from the U.S. Pacific Air Forces.
"One bomber conducted training in the vicinity of the South China Sea before returning to Guam, while the other conducted training in the vicinity of Japan in coordination with the U.S. Navy and alongside our Japanese air force counterparts before returning to Guam," it continued.
Mexico's presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Movement for National Renewal (MORENA) party takes part in an event at the Wilson Center in Washington, U.S. September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's approval rating stands at 78 percent, an opinion poll showed on Monday, adding to evidence that the veteran leftist has started his term with a strong popular mandate.
The figure in newspaper El Financiero was down from the 86 percent rating published in a poll on Feb. 7. But it was a percentage point higher than the newspaper's first gauge of his popularity after assuming the presidency on Dec. 1.
Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, won election by a landslide last July, pledging to end corruption, reduce violence, fight inequality and boost economic growth.
Since taking office, he has launched a crackdown on rampant fuel theft, rolled out welfare programs and vowed to inject $3.9 billion into ailing state oil company Pemex.
China is slashing business taxes as it tries to stop its economy from slowing down too sharply.
The Chinese government on Tuesday predicted economic growth of between 6% and 6.5% in 2019. That's a decline from last year's 6.6% rate of expansion, which was already China's weakest performance in three decades.
"There has been a more complex and severe environment facing our country's development this year," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech. "There are greater expected and unexpected risks and challenges, and we have to make full preparations for a hard struggle."
Li announced the growth target, which is in line with most economists' forecasts, at the start of this week's annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament. He also unveiled a slew of new measures intended to bolster the economy, including cuts in taxes and other charges that he said would save businesses nearly 2 trillion yuan ($298 billion) a year.
WNU Editor: The current business tax rate in China is 25%, and the individual progressive rate ranges from 3% to 45% (see here for more info on China's tax rates). If these proposed tax cuts are implemented, it will significantly boost the economy.
FILE PHOTO: A portrait of Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani is held up during a demonstration in Baghdad, March 31, 2015. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
(Reuters) - Qassem Soleimani's role in a political crisis in Iran highlights the influence of the leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, who has acquired celebrity status at home after being largely invisible for years.
The resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week was quickly rejected by President Hassan Rouhani, but a week on, tension over Zarif's absence from meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Soleimani attended is still evident.
Soleimani's Quds Force, tasked with carrying out operations beyond Iran's borders, shored up support for Assad when he looked close to defeat in the civil war raging since 2011 and also helped militiamen defeat Islamic State in Iraq.
Its successes have made Soleimani instrumental to the steady spreading of Iranian influence in the Middle East, which the United States and Tehran's regional foes Saudi Arabia and Israel have struggled to keep in check.
WNU Editor: Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani has influence and power in Iran because the clergy who rule Iran have given him the support, media attention, and resources necessary to be a player in Iranian politics. And the reason why the mullahs have given him this influence is to confront and keep in check people like Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif .... The duel between Qassem Soleimani and Mohammad Javad Zarif sends important messages (The National).
Fifth gen or fourth gen? F-35A or F-15X. Stealth, sensors and fusion or lots of missiles? Lockheed or Boeing? See what the Mitchell Institute says.
The Air Force needs to buy more new fighter planes. The constricted size and increasing age of the Air Force's fighter inventory is the product of long-standing deferred investment; the 2009 decision to prematurely curtail the F-22 buy at less than half its required inventory; failure to boost F-35 production to originally planned rates; and the fact that 234 of 1970's era F-15Cs will be hitting the end of their service lives in the next decade. Maintaining the current fighter inventory size demands that the Air Force buy at least 72 fighters per year into the 2020s. Failure to meet this requirement is not an option given the burgeoning global threat environment. With the fiscal year 2020 defense budget set for release next month, Congress will prove critical in charting a prudent path forward.
On one side of the debate, the Air Force could boost the production rate of its newest fifth-generation F-35 fighter—an aircraft imbued with stealth and information gathering, processing, and sharing capabilities that allow it to effectively execute its missions in modern threat environments and return home safely.
The United States spent $610 billion in 2018 on defense, roughly one-third of all military spending on the planet —but that doesn't mean that money is always being used efficiently. Over thirty years, the U.S. Army has engaged in two long-term wars and several briefer ones without replacing the major weapon systems which entered service in the 1970s and 80s.
In part, this is because the Army scaled back hi-tech equipment procurement in order to sustain expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But at the same time, the Army did spend $30 billion dollars on five new hi-tech weapons—all of which were cancelled.
There is a different feel to the atmosphere in Baghdad these days, as if the chokehold that has gripped the Iraqi capital for the better part of the last decade and a half has started to ease.
Two and a half years ago, ISIS plowed a truck packed with explosives into a busy shopping area down the road during Ramadan, killing hundreds of people.
Now, young men sporting skinny jeans, funky jackets and what we're told is the new "spikey" hairstyle hang around in groups. It's a look that once would have gotten them killed, back in the years of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting when Baghdad was a patchwork of brutal militias.
WNU Editor: Iraq is a textbook example on what happens when centuries of sectarianism, religious conflict, and ethnic conflict are not resolved in a nation where all of these groups must live and work together.
* Pakistan says it stopped an Indian submarine from entering its waters and toyed with the idea of sinking it. * The Pakistan Navy shared video and a photo to back up its claim on Monday, though it did not specify the exact location. * Tensions between the nuclear rivals spiked last week, with the countries engaging in an air battle and Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot. * A representative for the Indian Navy told Business Insider that India was still assessing the situation.
The Pakistan Navy on Tuesday said it had stopped an Indian submarine from entering its waters, just one week after tensions between the two nuclear rivals peaked in a dogfight over Kashmir.
In a Facebook post, the Pakistan Navy said it had "detected and blocked Indian Navy Submarine from entering into Pakistani waters."
Framing the incident as an act of aggression by India, the navy said it could have destroyed the Indian submarine but decided not to in the interest of peace.
WNU Editor: If this story is true, and if this submarine was attacked and destroyed, India and Pakistan will be in a state of war right now. This Indian sub appears to have also been in international waters when detected, and India is also denying these Pakistan reports .... India denies reports of its submarine near Pakistani waters (The Tribune).
More News On Pakistani Claims To Have Intercepted An Indian Submarine Near Their Waters
EMMANUEL Macron's "fantasy" vision for the future of the European Union has been ridiculed by Hungarian MEP György Schöpflin who has said the French President is oblivious of the populist movement sweeping across the continent.
FIRST Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have reportedly been granted security clearances by the President himself after his staff refused.
THE SEARCH for flight MH370 could have renewed hope with an Australian entrepreneur demanding more cash raised to look for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight which disappeared five years ago this week, as he set out a theory of what could have happened the day the jet went missing.
R KELLY erupted in anger during his first interview since being charged with sexual abuse, pounding his chest and yelling to the camera "I'm fighting for my f***** life".
THE grave of an ancient Crimean princess bedecked in "priceless" gold has been unearthed by archaeologists. The wealthy Scythian woman lived at the same time as Christ in the first century AD, say Russian scientists. In her vault was a stunning laurel wreath of eight gold leaves.
MH370 is the greatest mystery of the modern age but the fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 could finally be resolved with an ambitious $3billion plan to map the entire ocean floor.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Militants in Afghanistan set off a suicide blast on Wednesday morning and stormed a construction company near the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 16 people, officials said.
The dawn assault triggered an hours-long gunbattle with local guards, drawing in U.S. forces to assist the Afghan troops in the shootout.
Along with the 16 killed, nine people were also wounded in the attack, according to Attahullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar.
The two groups have been carrying out near-daily attacks across Afghanistan in recent years, mainly targeting the government and Afghan security forces and causing staggering casualties, including among civilians. The attacks have continued despite stepped-up U.S. efforts to find a negotiated resolution of the 17-year war, America’s longest.
Wednesday’s attack began around 5 a.m. and five attackers were involved, Khogyani said. Two of them detonated their explosives, blowing themselves up, while the remaining three were killed in the shooting.
The attackers were on foot and after setting off a suicide blast at the company gates, the others stormed in, triggering a gunbattle that drew U.S. forces to the scene, according to Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai, the provincial police chief.
“U.S. forces are supporting Afghan forces in securing the area now,” Stanikzai later said.
As the attack unfolded, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived for a visit to neighboring Kunar province to inaugurate an administrative health complex and to lay the cornerstone of a 200-bed hospital.
It was unclear why the construction company, called MQ, was targeted. The attack was over by 10:30 a.m. when the last of the attackers was killed, Khogyani said. “A clearing-up operation is still underway by Afghan security forces,” he added.
Over the weekend, the Taliban targeted an Afghan army unit at its camp in southern Helmand province, killing at least 23 troops and wounding more than 20 others. That attack began on Friday and ended on Saturday evening, 40 hours later.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Helmand attack, which came even as insurgents were meeting with a U.S. peace envoy in Qatar, a Gulf Arab country, for peace talks.
(CANBERRA, Australia) — Asylum seekers who are allowed to leave Australia-run migrant camps in Pacific nations to get medical treatment will be sent to a prison-like facility on a remote Australian island, the prime minister said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison flew to tiny Christmas Island in an overnight flight to announce his government’s strategy aimed at preventing asylum seekers from reaching the Australian mainland. The island is 5,170 kilometers (3,210 miles) northwest of the Australian capital, Canberra, and is closer to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.
Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to accommodate almost 1,000 asylum seekers who have attempted to reach the Australian coastline by boat since 2013. Boats carrying asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia had been arriving daily from Indonesian ports, but the smuggling attempts have all but stopped since the government announced that no refugee who arrives by boat will ever be allowed to settle in Australia.
Medical evacuations have proven to be a crack in the policy. Sick asylum seekers often have to fight the government in court for permission to be transferred to an Australian hospital, but hundreds granted that permission have received court injunctions that prevent their return to the islands.
The government began reopening a Christmas Island camp in December after a new law was passed to allow doctors rather than bureaucrats to decide which asylum seekers could come to Australia for hospital treatment. The law passed through the support of political parties outside the government and against the government’s wishes.
A new doctors’ panel to decide the medical transfers to Australia has yet to be appointed.
The government had warned last year that the medical-treatment law could allow all the asylum seekers on the islands to come to Australia and encourage more of the risky people-smuggling journeys.
Critics argue that Christmas Island doesn’t have the necessary medical facilities to cope with asylum seekers’ medical needs.
Morrison said the island’s high-security Northwest Point Immigration Detention Center was ready to accept up to 250 men transferred for medical treatment and can be quickly ramped to accommodate 600.
“My attention here is to ensure that vexatious acts … by those who would seek to game the system to come to Australia using these loopholes will think twice about it,” Morrison told reporters.
Women will be transferred to a less secure facility on the island. Only 4 percent of asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea are women, Immigration Minister David Coleman said.
Amnesty International’s Australian refugee coordinator Graham Thom accused Morrison of attempting to mislead the public and demonize refugees.
“It is clear there has been a shift in public attitude in supporting humane solutions for unwell refugees and it is extremely disappointing that instead of looking for genuine solutions Mr. Morrison continues to fear monger and use these individuals as political pawns,” Thom said in a statement.
Jon Stanhope, who as Christmas Island’s administrator from 2012 to 2014 was its most senior Australia-appointed bureaucrat, also disagreed with sending sick asylum seekers being sent there. Stanhope is also a former lawmaker who opposes both the government and opposition’s policies of refusing asylum seekers’ entry to Australia which has been condemned by the United Nations.
“It’s a very strange decision. I think it’s a decision that was driven by politics and not practicalities,” Stanhope told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Papua New Guinea only houses men. The last children on Nauru left with their families in December to make new homes in the United States. President Donald Trump agreed early in his presidency to accept up to 1,250 refugees from Papua New Guinea and Nauru after “extreme vetting.” As of Wednesday, only 493 had been resettled in the United States, the Home Affairs Department said in an email.
The department also said it had identified 57 men on the islands as having “adverse character findings,” and therefore unwelcome in Australia.
The department confirmed media reports that they included an Iran man allegedly charged with murder before reaching the camps, a Pakistani man accused of raping a child and a suspected Islamic extremist from Myanmar who transferred more than $700,000 from Nauru to Australia.
If last year was the Xi Jinping show, the 2019 National People’s Congress (NPC) — China’s annual rubberstamp parliament — has been all about the economy.
Twelve months have past since Xi’s coronation as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong at last year’s NPC, when presidential term limits were officially scrapped and Xi’s eponymous political thought enshrined in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) charter. By comparison, this year’s NPC, which opened Tuesday, had a markedly less triumphant feel.
It’s hardly surprising. Growth had slipped to its slowest rate in 28 years while crucial exports have also shrunk. Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative — a Beijing-bankrolled trade and infrastructure network tracing the ancient Silk Road — has encountered opposition from Hanoi to Madrid. Governments around the world are raising concern about China’s tech ambitions, particularly security concerns regarding 5G rollout.
Premier Li Keqiang sounded a cautionary note during Tuesday’s Work Report, which forms the NPC’s opening address and is akin to a State of the Union. Next year’s growth forecast would be between 6% and 6.5%, Li revealed, the lowest level since 1990, with Li stressing “graver,” “unpredictable” and “more complex” risks ahead, while steering clear of acknowledging any missteps by the Xi leadership.
“The more pressure Xi is under the less scope he has to acknowledge mistakes,” says Steven Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute.
None of those pressures loom as large as the ongoing trade war with Washington. Li conceded that “trade disputes” had negatively impacted the economy, but insisted that Beijing had “appropriately” handled the situation. Beijing and Washington are close to finalizing a trade deal, according to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Outside of its own long list of domestic challenges, relations with the U.S. are of paramount concern for Xi Jinping and the Chinese leadership,” says Jude Blanchette, a senior China analyst for Crumpton Group, a business consulting firm.
Tellingly, there was no mention of Made in China 2025 in the 35-page Work Report. The key strategic gambit to dominate certain hi-tech industries — such as aeronautics, Artificial Intelligence and semi-conductor chips — prompted a backlash from Washington, which has suggested it flouts WTO rules.
Trump has already accused Beijing of massive intellectual property theft while Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, awaits possible extradition from Canada to the U.S. to answer charges of flouting U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Li’s omission of Made in China 2025 — which featured in his previous three Work Reports — was probably “a sop to Trump but I can’t imagine Beijing ever abandoning said program’s high-technology objectives,” says Sean King, a former U.S. diplomat and now senior vice-president of political risk firm Park Strategies.
Li also announced a significant 3% cut in VAT for manufacturers to 13%, while VAT for construction and transport companies was trimmed to just 9%, in an attempt to boost private businesses. Local governments will be allowed to issue $320 billion worth of “special purpose” bonds.
But the announcement of tax cuts and infrastructure spending also signifies the government is willing to let its debt mountain — already estimated at three times GDP — grow in a bid to stabilize the economy and head off a possible rise in unemployment.
As a result, “the government’s fiscal position at both the central and local levels will deteriorate, while looser controls over lending to small companies could lead to widening bad debts,” writes Tom Rafferty, principal economist for China for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Li also announced efforts to improve social services, particularly education and healthcare, which are much maligned and a growing source of popular discontent. The government will incentivize investment in elderly care facilities and nurseries to address the ticking demographic time-bomb of China’s rapidly aging population.
Overall, the NPC is shaping up as an attempt to steady the ship amid disquiet from within the CCP and outside about Xi’s helmsmanship in the face of unprecedented headwinds.
Still, “It’s important that we don’t confuse more outspoken grumbling about Xi’s rule with an actual organized challenge,” says Blanchette, highlighting that his “control over the military and security services still appears firm.” Ultimately, he adds, “It’s time we start imagining Xi ruling China for the next few decades.”
India’s flag carrier has instructed crew to end all in-flight announcements with the phrase “Jai Hind,” which translates to “hail the motherland,” causing some confused amusement among social media users.
The BBC reports that deeply indebted Air India issued a memorandum to implement the new policy with “immediate effect,” requiring crew to recite the patriotic phrase “at the end of every announcement after a slight pause and with much fervor.”
The policy was announced at a time of particularly high patriotism in India, as tensions simmer with Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region.
The two nuclear-armed neighbors have been locked in a standoff since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing by Pakistan-based militants killed 41 Indian troops. The following days were marked by deadly gunfire and tit-for-tat airstrikes, forcing civilians to flee border towns.
Last week, Pakistan’s military claimed to have shot down two Indian warplanes and kept one Indian pilot in custody. He was released on March 1 in what Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called a “gesture of peace.”
Air India’s new policy was viewed by some as an attempt to seize nationalist sentiment to reinvigorate business. The BBC reports that the airline hasn’t turned a profit since 2007, and the company owes roughly 7.3 billion in debt, according to the Times of India.
Many took to social media to poke fun at the cash-strapped carrier, tweeting imaginary in-flight announcements ending with the patriotic flair:
With much fervour 🤣 "The captain would like to announce some Turbulence coming your way… Jai Hind"
(NAIROBI, Kenya) — Burundi’s government has forced the United Nations human rights office in the troubled East African country to close after 23 years, the U.N. rights chief announced with “deep regret” on Tuesday.
Burundi in December asked the U.N. office to leave, months after the outgoing U.N. rights chief called the country one of the “most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times.”
New rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that human rights gains in Burundi have been “seriously jeopardized” since 2015. That is when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for another, disputed term, leading to months of violence that the U.N. has said killed more than 1,200 people.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “was deeply disappointed by the decision to close down the human rights office.” Guterres thinks Burundi’s government should work with the U.N. rights office “regarding the human rights situation in the country,” the spokesman said.
Burundi has been pulling back from international criticism, making history in 2017 as the first country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.
The government has long been angered by U.N. reports describing alleged abuses amid the political turmoil. ICC judges authorized an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored crimes including murder, rape and torture — a decision unaffected by Burundi’s withdrawal from the court.
The government strongly denies allegations it targets its own people, saying the charges are malicious propaganda spread by exiles.
Burundi suspended its cooperation with the U.N. rights office in October 2016, accusing it of “complicity with coup plotters and Burundi’s enemies” after a report alleged the “involvement of the regime in systematic abuses and a risk of genocide.”
In December 2017, the government shut four regional offices of the U.N. rights office. And a team of experts mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council to look into possible abuses was expelled in May despite Burundi’s agreement to cooperate.
“I am disappointed by Burundi’s lack of cooperation in recent years with U.N. human rights mechanisms, which even went so far as to include threats to prosecute” members of that commission of inquiry, Bachelet said in her statement.
She said her office would continue to explore other ways to expose human rights concerns in Burundi and that the government “has expressed its readiness” to work with her office. “We stand ready to engage constructively,” she said.
The U.N. office in Burundi was established in 1995, two years after the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993. His death sparked a civil war between the East African nation’s two dominant ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, in which an estimated 300,000 people died.
North Korea has made repairs at a major missile launch site it had begun dismantling after agreeing with U.S. President Donald Trump to work toward denuclearization at their first meeting in Singapore last June.
Reuters reports that the country began restoring the facility just two days after their second summit failed to produce an agreement between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un in Hanoi late last week.
The latest construction at the Sohae launch site, also known as the Tongchang-ri launch site, in the country’s north near the border with China, includes a new roof and door at the facility, according to Reuters.
Jenny Town, managing editor at the Washington-based monitoring website 38 North, told Reuters that work on the launchpad can also be seen in satellite images.
A report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also based in Washington, says that satellite imagery dated March 2 “shows that North Korea is pursuing a rapid rebuilding of the long-range rocket site at Sohae.”
The construction “may indicate North Korean plans to demonstrate resolve in the face of U.S. rejection of North Korea’s demands at the summit,” CSIS said in a statement. Although Trump has repeatedly claimed that North Korea was willing to denuclearize after his first meeting with Kim, the dismantling of the Sohae site was one of the only signs of progress.
Trump abruptly ended talks with Kim in the Vietnamese capital last week, saying that Pyongyang insisted the U.S. remove all sanctions on North Korea. But at a rare news conference held by the North Koreans, senior officials said they had only asked for partial sanctions relief in exchange for closure of their main nuclear site at Yongbyon.
A female cyclist who was soaring past her competitors during a renowned bicycle race in Belgium was abruptly forced to stop for several minutes when she came too close to the “very slow” men’s race ahead of her.
The cyclist, Nicole Hanselmann, described the “awkward moment” in an Instagram post after Saturday’s annual Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race, during which male cyclists were given an eight-minute head start.
As the race progressed, Hanselmann built a lead of almost two minutes against the other women cyclists and “almost saw the back of the men’s peloton.”
“[Maybe] the other women and me were [too] fast or the men [too] slow,” she wrote in the Instagram post.
Hanselmann, a 27-year-old cyclist and the 2017 national champion in Switzerland, said officials paused the women’s race to stop them from catching up to the men.
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