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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Biden Assembles the Quad (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Joe Biden is on a mission to project an image of unity and cohesion with three of the world’s largest economies today as he hosts the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan for a meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue—the Quad—at the White House. The summit, the first in-person gathering for the group since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, caps a busy few days of Asia-focused diplomacy for the White House following the agreement of the AUKUS defense pact with Australia and the United Kingdom last week. That focus is underlined by additional one-on-one meetings Biden holds today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The summit is expected to conclude with the announcement of several initiatives designed to deepen relations between the four countries including student exchanges alongside plans to counter China’s domination of key industries like semiconductors and 5G networks. China’s reaction to the meeting has echoed the tone it took with AUKUS. Asked about the Quad summit last week, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian decried “exclusive ‘cliques’ targeting other countries” and said the group was “doomed to fail.”

Expensive garbage cans (Mission Local) San Francisco is years into an extremely expensive process of buying new garbage cans, with July seeing the Board of Supervisors vote to spend $427,500 on 15 prototypes for the three possible models of new trash can, with a per-trashcan price tag of $12,000 to $20,000 each. At the end of the day, San Francisco plans to buy 3,300 of the cans, and while the initial goal was to buy $1,000 cans, it’s looking like they might end up paying $5,000 a can. All told, the city will have to spend $6.6 million to $16.5 million on the misbegotten project, the brainchild of a disgraced former city official facing charges of fraud and lying to a federal agent. What’s wild is there are plenty of off-the-shelf models they could have gone with, from the $3,900 Bigbelly to New York’s $632 can, Los Angeles’ $449.51 can, D.C.’s $987 can or even Portland’s $1,851 can.

Migrant camp shrinks on US border as Haitians removed (AP) Haitian migrants waited to learn their fate at a Texas border encampment whose size was dramatically diminished from the almost 15,000 who gathered there just days ago in an effort to seek humanitarian protection in the U.S. but now face expulsion. The administration recently extended protections for more than 100,000 Haitians already in the U.S.—many of whom left their homeland after its devastating 2010 earthquake—citing security concerns and social unrest in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. But it doesn’t apply to new arrivals. Homeland Security said nearly 2,000 Haitians have been rapidly expelled on flights since Sunday under pandemic powers that deny people the chance to seek asylum. About 3,900 were being processed for possible return to Haiti or placement in U.S. immigration court proceedings. Others have been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court or report to immigration authorities. Thousands have returned to Mexico. Authorities expect the camp will be empty in about two days, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Sub snub just one symptom of longtime French unease with US (AP) Liberty and Fraternity, yes. Equality, not so much. Born of a revolution fought for liberty, ties between the United States and its oldest ally, France, have long been fraternal, but they’ve also been marked by deep French unease over their equality. French concerns about being the junior partner in the relationship boiled over last week when the U.S., Britain and Australia announced a new security initiative for the Indo-Pacific, aimed at countering a rising China. The AUKUS agreement scuttled a multibillion-dollar submarine deal that France had with Australia, but, more alarmingly for the French, pointedly ignored them, reinforcing a sense of insecurity that has haunted Paris since the end of World War II. France has long bristled at what it sees as Anglo-Saxon arrogance on the global stage and has not been shy about rallying resistance to perceptions of British- and German-speaking dominance in matters ranging from commerce to conflict. Thus the latest affront, AUKUS, resulted in an explosion of ire, with the French loudly protesting and recalling their ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia while shunning the British in an overt manifestation of centuries of rivalry.

German millionaires rush assets to Switzerland ahead of election (Reuters) A potential lurch to the left in Germany’s election on Sunday is scaring millionaires into moving assets into Switzerland, bankers and tax lawyers say. If the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), hard-left Linke and environmentalist Greens come to power, the reintroduction of a wealth tax and a tightening of inheritance tax could be on the political agenda. “For the super-rich, this is red hot,” said a German-based tax lawyer with extensive Swiss operations. “Entrepreneurial families are highly alarmed.” The move shows how many rich people still see Switzerland as an attractive place to park wealth, despite its efforts to abolish its image as a billionaires’ safe haven. No country has more offshore assets than Switzerland and inflows accelerated in 2020, to the benefit of big banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer. Geopolitical tensions and fears of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout made Switzerland’s political stability attractive.

Evergrande’s missed payment (Foreign Policy) Chinese property giant Evergrande appeared to miss a deadline to pay interest on part of its mammoth debt on Thursday, prompting fears that the company could soon default, causing ripple effects across the global financial system. Writing in Wednesday’s China Brief, FP’s James Palmer outlined the tricky politics at play for Chinese authorities. “The company appears to be doomed,” Palmer writes. “The question that remains is how much of the Chinese economy it will take down with it, and whether its fate is a symptom of much bigger problems.”

Korean War peace treaty “premature” (Foreign Policy) North Korea has again rejected a call for a formal end to the Korean war, which ended with an armistice agreement in 1953. South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the overture in his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, but on Friday, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thae Son said any talk of a peace treaty would be premature so long as “the U.S. hostile policy is not shifted.” North Korea has so far ignored U.S. negotiation efforts, although Moon speculated that the country “is still weighing options while keeping the door open for talks,” citing the relatively low-level provocations Pyongyang has tried since Biden became president.

Taliban official: Strict punishment, executions will return (AP) One of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi dismissed outrage over the Taliban’s executions in the past, which sometimes took place in front of crowds at a stadium, and he warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers. “Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi told The Associated Press, speaking in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.” Since the Taliban overran Kabul on Aug. 15 and seized control of the country, Afghans and the world have been watching to see whether they will re-create their harsh rule of the late 1990s. Turabi’s comments pointed to how the group’s leaders remain entrenched in a deeply conservative, hard-line worldview, even if they are embracing technological changes, like video and mobile phones.

Putting a Disturbingly Low Price On Life (BBC, Guardian, National Army Museum, The Conversation) There has been renewed focus on civilian deaths in Afghanistan following the U.S. military’s admission that an August 29 drone strike, intended for ISIS-K fighters, instead killed 10 civilians, including seven children. According to data collected by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based charity conducting research and advocacy on the incidence and impact of global armed violence, UK forces are linked to the deaths of nearly 300 Afghan civilians. Through a series of Freedom of Information requests, AOVA was able to obtain Ministry of Defense compensation logs revealing a total of £688,000 was paid out by the UK military for incidents involving 289 deaths, among them 86 children, between 2006 and 2014. The average amount paid was £2,380. One of the most serious incidents listed in the logs is the award of £4,233.60 to a family following the deaths of four children, who were mistakenly shot and killed in December 2009. Some payments were less than a few hundred pounds. In February 2008, one family received £104.17 for a confirmed fatality and property damage in Helmand province. The author of the research said reading the files was difficult: “The banality of the language means hundreds of tragic deaths, including dozens of children, read more like an inventory.” AOAV estimates 20,390 civilians were killed or injured by international and Afghan forces during the two-decade-long conflict. This is just one-third of the number killed by the Taliban and other insurgents. 453 British soldiers died in combat operations between 2001 and October 2014. During the entire 20-year engagement from 2001 to 2021, 2,455 U.S. service members lost their lives, including the 13 killed by ISIS-K in the Kabul airport attack August 26, 2021; 20,740 American military personnel were injured.

Hezbollah flexes its muscles in Lebanon and provides free Iranian fuel (Washington Post) Lebanon’s new government got off to an inauspicious start this week. As parliamentarians gathered to approve the cabinet lineup, the electricity went out—a common occurrence these days—and the chamber was plunged into darkness. To the rescue came Hezbollah, the militant Shiite movement designated by the United States as a terrorist organization that is also a political party here. Lawmaker Ibrahim Musawi swiftly procured two generators from the organization’s offices. Eventually, the electricity came back on and the generators were no longer needed. But the episode provided a fresh opportunity for Hezbollah to remind the Lebanese who wields real power in their steadily collapsing country. Days earlier, Hezbollah had flaunted its clout by trucking Iranian diesel fuel into Lebanon to help alleviate chronic fuel shortages that have left people without public electricity sometimes for up to 24 hours a day. The amount of fuel imported—just 33,000 tons—was meager compared with Lebanon’s vast needs and was only enough to last the generator-dependent country for a few days. But Hezbollah has milked the opportunity to portray itself as a savior, making the fuel available free to hospitals, charitable institutions, emergency services, municipalities and other institutions that have had services crippled by the lack of electricity.

Jailbreak shines light on mass incarceration of Palestinians (AP) The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel’s mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have passed through a military justice system designed for what Israel still portrays as a temporary occupation, but that is now well into its sixth decade and critics say is firmly cemented. Nearly every Palestinian has a loved one who has been locked up in that system at some point, and imprisonment is widely seen as one of the most painful aspects of life under Israeli rule. The saga of the six, who were eventually recaptured, also underscored the irreconcilable views Israelis and Palestinians hold about the prisoners and, more broadly, what constitutes legitimate resistance to occupation. Israel classifies nearly every act of opposition to its military rule as a criminal offense, while many Palestinians see those acts as resistance and those engaged in them as heroes.

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Saturday, February 13, 2021

Budget office expects $2.3T deficit before Biden relief plan (AP) The Congressional Budget Office says the federal government is on track for a $2.3 trillion deficit this year. The deficit could soon be revised upward if President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package becomes law. The additional aid—coming after roughly $4 trillion was approved last year—would add more red ink once enacted, but isn’t included in Thursday’s CBO projections. Several decades of deficit spending has meant that the total federal debt held by the public is slightly larger than GDP. That figure is projected to rise to 107% of GDP by 2031 as spending on Medicare and Social Security increases.

Hard-hit restaurants feed COVID doctors, nurses to survive (AP) It was the week after Christmas and coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations were soaring in Portland, Oregon. At Oregon Health & Science University, the state’s largest hospital, morale was low. Doctors and nurses caring for the most critically ill were burning out just when they were needed the most. Then, the food started coming: hot and delicious individually wrapped meals from some of the city’s trendiest restaurants, a buffet of cuisines from Chinese to Italian to Lebanese to Southern comfort food. For staffers who only took off their N95 masks once to eat during a 12-hour shift, the meals were more than just food—they were emotional sustenance. “It’s almost like having a weight lifted. It’s like getting a surprise dozen roses or something,” nurse Alice Clark said. “We’re so grateful.” But the meals, paid for by a wellness grant from the Oregon-based insurance fund SAIF, also served another purpose: They kept struggling restaurants afloat. As fall and then winter set in, eateries were folding under the strain of a monthslong indoor dining ban. The hospital orders—sometimes 150 or 160 meals at a time—were a financial lifeline. “It’s kept the doors open and a small workforce employed. It’s been the most heartfelt catering we’ve ever done,” said Kiauna Floyd, third-generation owner of Amalfi’s, a Portland institution that’s been serving up Italian cuisine for 62 years.

Trump defense wraps up case in three hours (AP) The defense attorneys for Donald Trump have wrapped up their presentation in the former president’s impeachment trial. Lawyers argued for three hours Friday that Trump didn’t incite the Jan. 6 rally crowd to riot at the U.S. Capitol and that his words were merely figures of speech. They say the case against Trump was a political witch hunt by Democrats and was not valid because he is no longer in office. Their truncated defense barely used the full time allotted, 16 hours over two days. Many senators minds appear already made up.

Trump Was Sicker Than Acknowledged With Covid-19 (NYT) President Donald J. Trump was sicker with Covid-19 in October than publicly acknowledged at the time, with extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus, according to four people familiar with his condition. His prognosis became so worrisome before he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator, two of the people familiar with his condition said. Mr. Trump’s blood oxygen level alone was cause for extreme concern, dipping into the 80s, according to the people familiar with his evaluation. The disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s. The new revelations about Mr. Trump’s struggle with the virus underscore the limited and sometimes misleading nature of the information disclosed at the time about his condition.

Powering through appendicitis for perfect score on Chile’s national exam (Las Ultimas Noticias/Chile) The two-day, standardized exam that Chilean high school students must take to gain entry into university is grueling enough to make anyone a bit sick to their stomach. Antonia Schmohol, 18, was no exception, although in her case, the abdominal aches that began bothering her on the eve of the dreaded PTU, as the test is called, turned out to be more than just a case of nerves, the Chilean daily Las Ultimas Notícias reports. Despite her discomfort, the teenager—who hails from Chiguayante, a small city about 500 km south of Santiago—soldiered through the long, first day of the exam. That night, the pain only worsened, but still, Schmohol’s family kept insisting that she was probably just anxious. Having barely slept, the bleary-eyed young woman returned to the testing center the next day, Jan. 9, doubled over in pain at times, nonetheless completed the final portion of the test, the mathematics section. Relieved to finally have the PTU behind her, Schmohol knew at that point that something was seriously wrong in her stomach area, and soon after went to a nearby hospital, where she was diagnosed with appendicitis and operated on right away. The determined young Chilena has since made a full recovery. But this week—just over a month after her gut-wrenching ordeal—she received a call from the Education Ministry informing her that she was one of just 218 students nationwide to earn a perfect score on the PTU’s math section. Talk about grace under pressure.

Money moving out of London (Financial Times) In January, an average of €9.2 billion shares per day were traded in Amsterdam on the Euronext Amsterdam and CBOE Europe and Turquoise exchanges, up from just north of €2 billion worth of shares a day in December 2020. Also in January, trade volumes in London were €8.6 billion, an enormous €6.5 billion fall from December. Both Paris and Dublin also saw slight increases in their trade volumes, as seemingly overnight the financial capital of Europe crossed the English Channel on to the continent following the conclusion of the Brexit transition period.

The Pandemic Emptied Europe’s Cities. What Will Bring People Back? (NYT) When the coronavirus exploded across Europe in March, it realigned city life, shifting office workers to their homes, shuttering the hospitality sector and reshuffling life for millions. Unshackled from offices—many for the first time in their working lives—city dwellers throughout Europe began to leave, some to avoid the virus but others to escape cramped and pricey apartments and to connect more with the natural world. Now, nearly a year after the first lockdowns and with months more of restrictions looming, the easy assumption that most of the coronavirus exiles would naturally return once the virus was tamed is being questioned. In the reverse of the old song, the question now is not how you keep them down on the farm, but how you dissuade them from moving there for good. For city planners and urban design experts, that means beginning to grapple with problems that have long plagued many of these cities—housing affordability, safe transportation and access to green space—but that have grown more urgent because of the pandemic. More broadly, cities will have to address new desires about connecting with nature and “reconnecting with life,” said Philipp Rode, the executive director of LSE Cities, a research center at the London School of Economics.

Urban Arrivederci (Worldcrunch) An increasing number of young Italians are leaving cities and offices to rediscover a love for the countryside. The biggest farmer’s association in Italy reports a 14% rise in the number of young farmers over the last five year. The group said the rise was partly propelled by the coronavirus crisis. Many of these young farmers came from different professional backgrounds, looking to reconnect with nature and a more genuine lifestyle.

China and India pull back (Foreign Policy) China and India have begun pulling back troops along their disputed Himalayan border, months after a deadly clash between the two sides. On Thursday, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said troops would be removed in a “phased, coordinated and verified manner,” while China’s defense ministry said it had begun a “synchronized and organized” disengagement. Military officials from both countries have been in de-escalation talks for months following a June 15 skirmish that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, along with an unknown number of Chinese.

Myanmar coup leader: ‘Join hands’ with army for democracy (AP) Myanmar’s coup leader used the country’s Union Day holiday on Friday to call on people to work with the military if they want democracy, a request likely to be met with derision by protesters who are pushing for the release from detention of their country’s elected leaders. “I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw for the successful realization of democracy,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said using the local term for the military. “Historical lessons have taught us that only national unity can ensure the non-disintegration of the Union and the perpetuation of sovereignty,” he added. Min Aung Hlaing’s Feb. 1 coup ousted the civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. It reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests in cities around the country. The rallies against the coup—now daily occurrences in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay—have drawn people from all walks of life, despite an official ban on gatherings of more than five people.

Australian city Melbourne begins 3rd lockdown due to cluster (AP) Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will begin its third lockdown on Friday due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine. The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said. Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport. Schools and many businesses will be closed. Residents are ordered to stay at home except to exercise and for essential purposes. A population of 6.5 million will be locked down from 11:59 p.m. until the same time on Wednesday because of a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport hotel that has infected 13 people.

Is Biden ghosting Bibi? (Washington Post) Since President Biden took office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bibi as he is known here, has been waiting for the traditional courtesy call from the Oval Office. After all, both Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama reached the prime minister within days of taking their oaths of office. But three weeks into his term, as Biden has worked deep into his Rolodex of world leaders without dialing Netanyahu’s Balfour Street office, much of Israel’s political class is ready to declare it a full-blown diplomatic snub.

Despite Biden’s push, a difficult road to peace in Yemen (AP) Buthaina al-Raimi was five years old when a Saudi airstrike destroyed her home in the Yemeni capital and killed her parents and all five of her siblings in August 2017. Ever since, she still breaks into tears for seemingly no reason. When planes fly overhead, she shouts to her uncle, “They’re going to hit us!” For her uncle, Khalid Mohammed Saleh, the U.S. decision last month to stop backing the Saudi coalition and push for an end to the war can do nothing to end her suffering. “It’s a wise decision, but it’s too late,” he said. It’s also too early, he said—too early to say whether President Joe Biden’s move will bring peace to Yemen. Reaching peace will be a difficult path. The warring parties have not held substantive negotiations since 2019. Fighting on the ground and coalition airstrikes continue. The Houthis’ grip on the north of the country has only grown stronger, and they have captured new territory from pro-government forces over the past year. Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, said Biden’s policy shift was “really welcome news” but “won’t automatically mean an end to the war.”

The pandemic has left a huge cache of dinosaur bones stuck in the Sahara (Washington Post) In secret patches of the south-central Sahara, blankets of sand hide 20 tons of dinosaur bones. There are flying reptiles. A creature that resembles an armored dog. Eleven species yet to be identified—all with long necks. They roamed the desert when it was still green, scientists concluded. This is one of Africa’s biggest fossil caches, a prehistoric graveyard that sparked dreams of a world-class exhibition in Niger. The rare discovery is vulnerable to looters and collapsing dunes. But excavation must wait as the nation confronts a second wave of the coronavirus on top of escalating Islamist insurgencies. Niger, about twice the size of France and two-thirds desert, has long boasted dinosaur riches. Countless bones poke through the sand. Paleontologists face a sweltering trek through bandit territory to reach what researchers call the continent’s most diverse mix of extinct giants.

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