The US has finished work to recover sunken remnants of the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina and the debris reinforces that it was for spying, officials have said. The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, said the wreckage included “electronics and optics” but declined to say what the US had learned from it so far. “It’s a significant amount [of recovered material], including the payload structure as well as some of the electronics and the optics, and all that’s now at the FBI laboratory…
Day: February 17, 2023
Impact of the Ukraine war, 1 year on
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and created Europe’s largest refugee wave since World War II. In this multimedia series marking the one-year anniversary of the conflict, we look at China’s response to what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” and its diplomatic, military, and economic impact. South China Morning Post
Myanmar junta targets Kayin state on Thai border, a rebel hotbed in a key location
Myanmar’s junta has focused much of its military firepower on Kayin state, carrying out 57 airstrikes on two key areas in January alone, highlighting the strategic importance of the area bordering Thailand rife with armed resistance groups and political opponents in hiding. The state, across a river from the Thai border town of Mae Sot, is the stronghold of the Karen National Union, an armed ethnic group that has been fighting the government on and off for decades for more autonomy. Battle-hardened warriors, they’ve now joined the wider armed resistance…
Villagers to be displaced by Luang Prabang Dam want more compensation
Villagers in northern Laos who will be displaced by the massive Luang Prabang Dam project are demanding five times higher compensation than the government is offering, saying flooding from the dam will wipe out their farmland. Residents of 12 villages in Oudomxay Province’s Nga District have also complained to local officials about the location of the new homes and resettlement villages that would be built for them. The 1,460-megawatt dam will be one of several cascading dams built on the Mekong River. It will affect 2,130 households and is part…
Quizzed at UN, Chinese delegates deny rights abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans
Under intense questioning by UN experts over two days, a delegation of 40 Chinese officials staunchly denied any human rights violations against Uyghur and Tibetan minorities, or efforts to eradicate their religious lives, as documented in UN and other reports. In two six-hour sessions on Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva, the Chinese officials were quizzed by 18 experts from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or CESCR, about the situations in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, the autonomous region where the predominantly Muslim Uyghur people live. The…
US Pentagon’s top China official travels to Taiwan, sources say
Chiu, asked whether Chase would be coming, said “those who are friendly to us” are very welcome,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session. “I won’t explain the details,” he said. “I won’t explain until I get formal notification.” Advertisement Chase would be the most senior US defence official known to have visited the island since 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic widely impacted US government travel. China, which regards Taiwan as a wayward province that must be reunited with the mainland, has repeatedly demanded that foreign officials not…
Distrust deepens over US-China balloon row
“It certainly indicates the People’s Liberation Army feels they can justify absolutely any technology and any mission, that they can do anything to increase China’s ability to project power, conduct surveillance, and hold the US at risk,” said Mr Drew Thompson, a former US Department of Defense official and a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore. BBC
Western Leaders Pledge Support for Ukraine at Munich Security Conference
MUNICH — Nearly one year into the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, Western leaders pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kyiv amid worries about whether their unity can survive what France’s president called “a prolonged conflict.” As dozens of leaders convened in Germany, Ukraine’s president opened the annual Munich Security Conference with a warning against “fatigue” and emphasizing that speed is of the essence if his country is to hold off a renewed Russian onslaught. “We need to hurry up,” Mr. Zelensky implored the attendees. He compared…
Seoul’s defense ministry denies Korean troops massacred civilians during Vietnam War
South Korea’s defense ministry Friday denied that the country’s troops massacred civilians in the Vietnam War, and said that the government would appeal a recent court ruling that awarded damages to a survivor. Last week, the Seoul Central District Court ordered the government to pay US$24,000 in compensation to Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Thanh, 63, who was shot as South Korean soldiers tore through her village in central Quang Nam province in 1968. While she survived, 74 were killed in the raid, including several of her relatives. South Korea sent…
Voice of Democracy seeks way to restore broadcast license
The management at the recently shuttered Voice of Democracy are looking for ways to negotiate with the government to reinstate its license, but Prime Minister Hun Sen insisted Friday that one of Cambodia’s last independent media outlets will not be allowed to reopen. Instead, he urged them to apply for jobs in the government, saying they could do so without taking the required examination. VOD was shut down Monday by Hun Sen after the outlet reported on Feb. 9 that the prime minister’s son, Hun Manet, had approved a government…