Diplomacy & Crisis News

The UN Secretary-General has called for parties in the Central African Republic (CAR) to prioritize national dialogue and consensus-building ahead of elections scheduled to begin in December. 

Michael Rubin

Diplomacy, Asia

Xi Jinping’s increasing aggressiveness underscores that decades of accommodating and appeasing Beijing were mistakes. Against this backdrop, Pompeo should visit Taiwan.

Too many secretaries of State see travel as a personal perk often distinct from the national security prerogatives of the nation they serve, and for too long the press has played along, allowing the nation’s top diplomat to use miles flown or countries visited as a metric for job effectiveness.

The Associated Press reported in 2012, for example, how “While historians will debate and eventually rate her tenure as America's top diplomat, Clinton is already assured of a place in the State Department record book. When her plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington early Tuesday morning, the former first lady completed an epic 13-day journey of 27,000 miles — about 2,000 miles more than the circumference of the Earth.” The wire service quoted one exuberant Clinton staffer describing “the France-Afghanistan-Japan-Mongolia-Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Egypt-Israel itinerary as ‘especially absurd, even for us.’” A Clinton aide’s email suggested that the secretary based her itineraries more on bolstering numbers of countries visited, visiting countries to which she had never traveled in her career, or becoming the first secretary to visit a state than any strategic reason. “With 7ish months left, plenty of time to run up the score on total countries. 110 is a reasonable goal.” Phillipe Reines, her assistant for strategic communications, emailed her. “Here are the 94 countries left to choose from (asterisks appear next to countries you visited prior to becoming SecState, but not since - so they would count).” Among those countries he listed were Belarus, Iran, and North Korea, considered possible destinations for all the wrong reasons.

John Kerry one-upped Clinton by becoming the first secretary of State to visit and tour Antarctica, never mind there were not foreign diplomats their to engage. While he did meet with American scientists there, he might have saved the American taxpayer several million dollars had he simply skyped with them from their home agency, just a couple miles from the State Department’s headquarters.

Mike Pompeo has been more responsible. He has not traveled as much as some of his predecessors (although more than Rex Tillerson), but every trip he has made has had a clear purpose to further Trump administration policy or promote clear American strategic interests. His trips to Greece and Cyprus, for example, have underscored the growing reorientation of the Eastern Mediterranean security structure. His recent visits to the Balkan and South America have encouraged state with new-found oil wealth to integrate their energy infrastructure to the advantage of regional democracies.

He could cap off his career, however, by becoming the first secretary of State to visit Taiwan.

The United States has not had formal relations with the Republic of China, based in Taiwan, since January 1, 1979, when the United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, ending a process begun by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s outreach to and cultivation of the Peoples Republic of China. This did not amount to complete abandonment: The same day Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act “to promote the foreign policy of the United States by authorizing the continuation of commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan.” In effect, this created shadow relations in which a newly-established American Institute in Taiwan would act as a de facto embassy while Taiwan would operate a Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office as its equivalent in Washington.

Nevertheless, over recent decades, the level of interaction U.S. officials and Taiwan has declined. George H.W. Bush sent the first cabinet-level official to Taiwan since the 1979 break in relations when U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills visited the island in 1992. That broke the ice and, during the Clinton administration, a number of other senior officials visited Taiwan: Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña, Small Business Administration head Phil Lader, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, and Peña’s successor Rodney Slater. After Clinton left office, visits declined precipitously. George W. Bush sent no senior officials to Taiwan, and Barack Obama sent only Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy. The most senior State Department official sent to America’s 11th largest trading partner was the special envoy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex individuals. Contrast that with the high profile visits paid to Cuba, and the diminishment of Taiwan in the strategic calculus was clear.

President Donald Trump has already begun to reverse this pattern. On February 28, 2018, Congress passed the “Taiwan Travel Act” which Trump signed into law just weeks later. Written into the law was “the Sense of Congress” that “It should be the policy of the United States to...allow officials at all levels of the United States Government, including Cabinet-level national security officials, general officers, and other executive branch officials, to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese counterparts.”

Despite the Act, Trump has only recently begun to send more senior officials to the island. On August 9-10, Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, visited Taiwan. This was followed the following month by Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the

Environment Keith Krach, who represented the United States at a memorial service for former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. The State Department’s efforts to downplay his visit, however, undercut the symbolic importance of the trip. Likewise, while the White House applauded Taiwan and Somaliland’s decision to establish diplomatic relations, the State Department’s refusal to acknowledge or similarly affirm at best signaled hostility toward Taipei and at worse showed strategic confusion.

Xi Jinping’s increasing aggressiveness underscores that decades of accommodating and appeasing Beijing were mistakes. China has continued to flout international law in the South China and East China Seas. In recent months, China has revoked Hong Kong’s special status and accelerated genocide against its Uighur population. It covets Taiwan, a country (Beijing’s claims aside) that has historically seldom been under mainland China’s control.

Against this backdrop, Pompeo should visit Taiwan. He has already appeared alongside Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, and so a visit would be the logical next step. Yes, Beijing will bluster: When U.S. carriers pass through the South China Sea or other officials visit Taiwan, China regularly ups its threatening rhetoric and scrambles its warplanes but when Washington affirms its commitment to freedom of the seas and freedom of American officials to visit wherever they need in fulfillment of their government functions, Beijing backs down. Pompeo may take the diplomatic standoff to a new level, but the presence of a U.S. carrier strike group near Taiwan during his visit would deter Beijing. Nor would Pompeo need to announce his visit in advance.

That so many U.S. officials are unwilling to play diplomatic hardball surely factors into the calculations of Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin when they act provocatively or engage in their own regional salami-slicing. As Pompeo changes the conversation about China in Washington, he could do no better than lead by example and become the most senior official to visit Taipei since President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited Taipei 60 years ago. That, more than trying to set records for numbers of countries visited or taking his team on a junket to Antarctica is the way to return gravitas to America diplomacy.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). You can follow him on Twitter: @mrubin1971.

Image: Reuters. 

Rachel Bucchino

economy, Americas

As coronavirus relief package negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remain at a halt, small business and major corporations continue to suffer, as federal government aid runs out, forcing them to furlough or layoff employees, or shut down completely.

Fewer Americans filed initial unemployment claims for the week ending Sept. 26, marking the drop the lowest level claims have been since the coronavirus pandemic tackled the economy in March.

The Labor Department reported on Thursday that 837,000 seasonally adjusted, initial claims for unemployment insurance were processed last week, a drop of 36,000 from a week earlier, stamping it as the fifth consecutive week that initial claims hovered under one million. The figure, however, still remains higher than pre-coronavirus periods. 

The unadjusted data also experienced a massive drop of 40,263, bringing the total to 786,942 for the last full week of September.

Continuing claims, the full pool of Americans on state unemployment insurance, reported more data to show a path towards economic recovery, as it declined to 11.8 million for the week ended Sept. 19.

Economists anticipated that initial claims would skid to 850,000 and for continuing claims to reach 12.2 million, according to a Bloomberg survey. 

While the plummets in unemployment claims indicate a slow path towards economic improvement after experiencing turmoil for the last six months, the department suggested that the numbers could be inaccurate considering California, the state with the most population, didn’t process claims because it’s applying fraud-prevention technology. Instead, the department cited claims from the week prior to filling the state’s reported gap.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department also released Thursday that personal income plunged 2.7 percent, or $543.5 billion, in August, posing a potential threat to future consumer spending. During the same month, consumer spending actually rose 1 percent. 

In the midst of the reports, many companies announced a swarm of massive layoffs this week. As coronavirus relief package negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remain at a halt, small business and major corporations continue to suffer, as federal government aid runs out, forcing them to furlough or layoff employees, or shut down completely. 

Disney announced 28,000 layoffs at its theme park division, 3,800 people at the insurance company Allstate and thousands of furloughs in the airline industry including at American Airlines and United Airlines. Other companies like Continental, a German tire company, plans to cut nearly 30,000 people worldwide and Marathon Petroleum ignited layoffs. 

While the department’s data provides hope to achieve a recovered economy, job losses are mounting, creating a deep strain on the labor market and eventually, consumer spending.  

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.

Image: Reuters

Ethen Kim Lieser

Health,

Public-health initiatives like mask-wearing and social distancing that have been shown to successfully limit the spread of the novel coronavirus might also play an important role in suppressing the severity of the upcoming flu season, according to White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Public-health initiatives like mask-wearing and social distancing that have been shown to successfully limit the spread of the novel coronavirus might also play an important role in suppressing the severity of the upcoming flu season, according to White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“Steps to fight the flu and COVID-19 overlap greatly,” he said during a virtual briefing on Thursday. “We don’t want those two diseases together.”

Fauci warned that the nation’s health-care system might soon be confronted with a “diagnostic challenge” if there is, in fact, a devastating one-two punch of the seasonal flu plus the coronavirus.

“There’s considerable concern as we enter the fall and the winter months and into the flu season that we’ll have that dreaded overlap of two respiratory diseases, namely influenza and COVID-19,” said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In the United States, on average, between nine and forty-five million Americans catch the flu each year, which leads to anywhere between 12,000 to 61,000 deaths. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between October 2019 and April 2020, there were an estimated thirty-nine to fifty-six million influenza infections and 24,000 to 62,000 fatalities.

A 2017 collaborative study by the CDC and global health partners revealed that between 291,000 and 646,000 people worldwide die from influenza-related respiratory illnesses each year. These figures are considerably higher than the World Health Organization’s previous estimates of 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.

In what could be considered good news for the United States, a recent CDC study found that the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere between April and July was far less severe compared to previous years.

Data from Australia, Chile, and South Africa showed that only .06 percent of more than 83,000 collected samples came back positive for influenza—far lower than the roughly 14-percent rate in past years.

“They had a very, very light flu season,” Fauci said.

In preparation for the flu season, the four manufacturers of flu vaccines have already confirmed that they will ship roughly 200 million doses across the United States this year—which is 19 percent higher than last season.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert also noted that the United States has been the “most severely hit” by the novel coronavirus, with more than 7.2 million confirmed cases and at least 207,000 fatalities, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

“Truly a transforming pandemic of historic nature, and we’re not through with it yet,” Fauci said.

Now more than nine months into the pandemic, there are roughly 34.1 million cases of coronavirus worldwide, including nearly 1.02 million related deaths.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: Anthony Fauci, MD, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, testifies during a U.S. Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Hearing to examine COVID-19, focusing on an update on the federal response at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 23, 2020. Graeme Jennings/Pool via REUTERS

We must “commit” to building a more inclusive and sustainable world, the UN chief underscored in his annual report on the Work of the Organization, launched on Thursday.

From the Vatican to Brazil, foreign officials are getting tired of Pompeo dragging their governments into Trump’s reelection campaign.

Stephen Silver

Politics, Americas

Will this placate criticism or will it be too little, too late?

For the last several years, Google, along with Facebook, has been frequently criticized for collecting much of the advertising revenue that has traditionally gone to media outlets, therefore putting the survival of such outlets into question.

This week, Google has announced what it calls a big step in helping to reverse that trend.

Back in 2018, Google parent company Alphabet launched the Google News Initiative, which had the dual mandate, per CNBC, of helping publishers to earn money, and to “fight false news.” The former plan was to “offer publications another monetization model online called Subscribe with Google.” Google later announced initiatives that include emergency funding for local news outlets hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, Google announced that it is making “a $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers and the future of news.”

In the announcement, which came in a blog post by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, explained that Google “will pay publishers to create and curate high-quality content for a different kind of online news experience.”

It’s part of the introduction of a new product called Google News Showcase which, per Pichai, “features the editorial curation of award-winning newsrooms to give readers more insight on the stories that matter, and in the process, helps publishers develop deeper relationships with their audiences.”

The Showcase will be shown in panels on Google News, initially on Android, and eventually iOS and later Discover and Search. The company has reached agreement with nearly 200 publishers in Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the U.K. and Australia, although there has been no announcement of any such deal in the United States. Per CNN, Google has not yet said when they might launch such deals in America.

“This approach is distinct from our other news products because it leans on the editorial choices individual publishers make about which stories to show readers and how to present them. It will start rolling out today to readers in Brazil and Germany, and will expand to other countries in the coming months where local frameworks support these partnerships,” Pichai said.

There was some skepticism about the deal.

“This Google news is going to be a win for a handful of already leading publishers, and a finger in the eye of everyone else IMO,” Matthew Ingram, of the Columbia Journalism Review, tweeted in reaction to the news. A DigiDay overview, meanwhile, found publishers “wary” of the news.

“I imagine [Google] will retain the clause to prevent publishers from participating in collective agreements negotiated under the publisher’s right,” Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council, told that publication. “Which is quite extraordinary, given that this is a right under the law. Meanwhile, it is very unclear how this affects publishers that do not participate.”

News reports this week stated that a Department of Justice antitrust suit against Google is likely imminent.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

Ethen Kim Lieser

Technology, Asia

Here is what the reviews say about whether it is worth your money.

If you’ve long been a fan of Samsung’s lower-tier QLED HDTV models, perhaps it’s about time to jump in and see what the higher-end panels have to offer.

The highly regarded 65-inch Q80 Series should get you off and running, and it is currently retailing for $1,800 at Best Buy.

Surely not the cheapest option out there but know that compared to lesser QLED models, this set can handle those annoying glares and reflections slightly better and boasts improved wide-viewing angles. However, keep in mind that it is still lacking somewhat when placed side-by-side with the much-vaunted OLED panels.

The Q80 excels in providing outstanding overall image quality with plenty-deep black levels. The high light output—a major strength of QLED HDTVs—and the full-array local dimming also work wonderfully well, so you’ll surely enjoy the lively and accurate colors for big sporting events and family movie nights.

Samsung’s backlighting technology is able to precisely control the amount of lighting across every part of the picture, which helps provide incredible contrast—even in bright, sunlit rooms. Also, be prepared to be impressed by the set’s robust video processing capability, a welcome boon for both diehard gamers and lovers of action flicks.

Not to be outdone, you’ll also be blessed with a true 120Hz panel, which does improve the TV’s overall motion performance, and you can be rest assured that it fully supports much-coveted HDR content in HDR10+ and HLG formats.

Your immersive gaming experience will also be ramped up with Game Enhancer, as the panel has the ability to eliminate any chance of screen tearing and stuttering. The end result is noticeably smoother gameplay—no matter how graphics-intensive the games are. You can consider yourself good to go while waiting to get your hands on the next-generation consoles from PlayStation and Xbox.

For the Q80 and other QLED models, Samsung employs its own built-in digital assistant Bixby—but many users have shared their frustrations with this feature. Bixby, unfortunately, doesn’t come close to the skills of industry giants Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, which can often be found on rivals from LG to Sony. Keep in mind that the 2019 and later versions, though, will be able to respond to voice commands issued via Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers.

Another downside is its smart TV platform, which is powered by Tizen. First introduced in 2015 after years of development, the Tizen OS, much like Korean archrival LG’s webOS, has a pleasant stripped-down interface but it really lacks any real punch that is needed for today’s data-heavy streaming TV world. Yes, Tizen offers access to popular run-of-the-mill apps like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, but a platform like Android TV or Roku TV will surely give you much more bang for your buck.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Samsung.

The president’s call for the white supremacist group to “stand back and stand by” comes as intelligence agencies have growing concerns about right-wing militias.

Unless countries act now, the COVID-19 pandemic could erase recent “fragile progress” towards gender equality, the UN Secretary-General warned on Thursday, urging governments to put women at the centre of recovery and response. 

Stephen Silver

Economics,

Should Hollywood really get a bailout to help them during the coronavirus lockdowns?

Movie theaters are back—but moviegoers don’t appear to have returned along with them, in any great number.

America’s major theater chains began reopening in August, with many more opening in time for Labor Day, when Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” was released theatrically. On Wednesday, AMC Theaters announced another round of reopening in California and Michigan, which means 80% of the chain’s U.S. theaters will be open by the second week in October.

However, just because the theaters are opening doesn’t mean moviegoers feel safe about returning. The theatrical box office has been paltry ever since the reopening began, with “Tenet” leading the box office last week with the low sum of $3.4 million, per Box Office Mojo. The Hollywood studios have responded by pushing most of the year’s major movie releases, including Disney’s “Black Widow,” into 2021.

As a result, a coalition of prominent people and groups associated with the motion picture industry, including actors, directors, producers and the umbrella organizations of the motion picture and theatrical exhibition industries, have written a letter to the leaders of Congress, asking for help. And the letter states that without such help, the industry faces doom.

“Cinemas are an essential industry that represent the best that American talent and creativity have to offer. But now we fear for their future,” the letter states, per The Hollywood Reporter. “Our country cannot afford to lose the social, economic, and cultural value that theaters provide. The moviegoing experience is central to American life. Theaters are great unifiers where our nation’s most talented storytellers showcase their cinematic accomplishments.”

The letter also warns that as many as 69% of small- and medium-sized movie theaters could go under, in the absence of government aid.

The letter was addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Congress, per CNN, is currently in talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about a new coronavirus aid package, and any help for the movie exhibition industry would likely need to come from such a package.

Those signing the letter include directors Wes Anderson, Judd Apatow, Noah Baumbach, Michael Bay, James Cameron, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood, Catherine Hardwicke, Barry Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Richard Linklater, Adam McKay, Jordan Peele, Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, and dozens more. Also signing are actor Seth Rogen, James Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli, and the organizations the National Association of Theatre Owners, the Directors Guild of America and the Motion Picture Association.

One thing is notable about the letter: The position the industry has taken is to campaign for the government to help out movie theaters, and not to attempt to persuade moviegoers to support theaters by returning to them.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

Stephen Silver

Politics, Americas

The FBI had warned the social media giant that the accounts had originated from inside that country.

For all of the talk about election interference from Russia, specifically on social media platforms, in 2016, and whether it might be replicated, Twitter has stopped what may be a coordinated effort from a different country.

Twitter’s Safety account on Wednesday said that, acting on a tip from the FBI, it “removed approximately 130 accounts that appeared to originate in Iran. They were attempting to disrupt the public conversation during the first 2020 U.S. Presidential Debate.”

“We identified these accounts quickly, removed them from Twitter, and shared full details with our peers, as standard. They had very low engagement and did not make an impact on the public conversation. Our capacity and speed continue to grow, and we’ll remain vigilant,” the company said.

Twitter also added some photos of the offending tweets, one of which came from an account called “JackQAnon.” Twitter also said that “the accounts and their content will be published in full once our investigation is complete.”

Twitter has said that the accounts “originated in Iran,” although Twitter has not said that the tweets had anything to do with the Iranian government, or any kind of coordinated effort by that government. Twitter did, however, remove more than 4,000 accounts that were indeed “linked to the Iranian government,” CNET reported in 2019. And there’s a chance that the tweets only drew the FBI’s attention due to some such connection.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, tweeted that “we’re grateful to the

@FBI for the tip, and are staying vigilant about threats to #Election2020—foreign and domestic.”

The tweets had “low engagement,” according to a tweet by Jason Brodsky of the United Against Nuclear Iran organization, although Brodsky also noted that “there are many accounts from Iranian officials with much higher engagement which should also be on @Twitter’s radar.” And he noted that some of the accounts appeared to be pro-Trump, despite the president’s withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal and generally hostile in posture towards Iran.

This is not the season’s first Twitter controversy involving Iran. On September 1, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, sent a tweet referencing “the Israelis and filthy Zionist agents of the U.S.,” including “the Jewish member of Trump’s family,” which was presumably a reference to the president’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Twitter did not remove the post, and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted the same day that Khamenei’s “deeply hateful post clearly violates Twitter’s rules against comments that “dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes.’”

Following the debate, Greenblatt also sharply criticized President Trump for refusing to condemn the Proud Boys and telling them to “Stand Back and Stand By.” The ADL chief denounced the Proud Boys as “dangerous, violent people who are using these words as a rallying cry.”

Twitter recently said they will roll out a prompt that encourages users to read articles before they tweet them.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

 

Austria offers a dispiriting preview of the future of progressive politics.

Peter Suciu

Security, Europe

The Su-34 is a very capable aircraft that Moscow is looking to keep flying for years to come.

Earlier this week a Russian Su-34 took part in the first-of-its-kind night-time flight into the lower stratosphere where it destroyed a hypothetical enemy while at supersonic speed. It was a notable accomplishment for the all-weather jet, which is capable of ground, surface and air attacks.

The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO’s reporting name Fullback) is a two-seat, generation-four-plus multifunctional fighter-bomber that was developed to replace both the Su-24 sweep-wing strike fighter and the Tu-22 bomber. It was developed from the frontline Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet at the Sukhoi Design Bureau under chief designer Maritosov. The aircraft has seen service in Syria—and it has been regarded as the most technologically advanced Russian Air Force aircraft deployed in the conflict—but it could also be used to defend Russian interests in the Arctic, which highlight the versatility of the aircraft and its abilities to operate in a variety of conditions.

The latest test, involving an aircraft from the aviation division of the Central Military District in the Chelyabinsk Region, further highlights that fact.

“During the training flights Sukhoi Su-34 crews carried out climbs to altitudes of about 15 kilometers, into the lower stratosphere,” the district’s press office told Tass. “Upon achieving supersonic speeds they practiced interception and elimination of a hypothetical enemy. The crews operated totally on their own, without contacting air defense stations on the ground, which made the task more complex.”

An air regiment of the Central Military District completed a program for the rearmament last October, which included the deployment of the Su-34. The last three jets were redeployed to the Chelyabinsk Region to complete a second squadron of the advanced aircraft.

The stratosphere is the second major layer of the earth’s atmosphere and it is where many large commercial aircraft routinely operate as it is where the least amount of turbulence is often found. The stratosphere is very dry with fewer clouds, and that also ensures better fuel economy while there is also less air friction, which can increase the true airspeed (TAS).

Multitask Fighter-Bomber

The Sukhoi Su-34 preformed its first flight on April 13, 1990 but it wasn’t until March, 2014 that it was authorized for service—however it was rumored to have seen combat service during the five day Russo-Georgian War in 2008. The aircraft has a maximum airspeed of 1,400 kilometers per hour near the surface and at high altitudes could reach 1,900 kilometers per hour. It has a range of flight for 4,500 kilometers without refueling.

Its weaponry consists of 30 mm gun GSh-30-1 and twelve weapon stations for air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles of different types, unguided rockets and aerial bombs.

The main task of the Su-34 is to destroy ground, surface and air targets as well as air defense-protected infrastructure. The fighter-bomber is also capable of effectively delivering strikes amid enemy resistance round the clock in good and bad weather and it is armed with a variety of weapons, while it can also be used to conduct air reconnaissance. Because of its combat features it is able to enter into highly maneuverable duels with enemy fighter jets and operate in bomber combat missions independently without the need for escort fighters.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters

Et si nos ancêtres féminines avaient peint Lascaux, chassé des bisons, taillé des outils ? En calquant sur leur objet d'étude le modèle patriarcal et son ordre divin, les premiers préhistoriens ont construit des mythes infériorisant les femmes. La démarche scientifique conduit à prendre des distances (...) / Femmes, Histoire, Science, Idées, Agriculture, Céréales, Inégalités, Société - 2020/10

Rachel Bucchino

Politics,

Despite anticipations that Senate Republicans will resist an upcoming package, many viewed the meeting as progress towards a potential settlement.

Top congressional lawmakers met Wednesday to negotiate the next coronavirus relief bill, resulting in yet another failed attempt to reach a long-awaited deal and set partisan politics aside.

But this time, there may be a flicker of hope as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arranged to convene and continue economic relief talks as the ongoing pressure from congressional colleagues linger to reach an agreement.

“Secretary Mnuchin and I had an extensive conversation and we found areas where we are seeking further clarification. Our conversations will continue,” Pelosi said in a statement, following their ninety-minute meeting in her office in the Capitol.

Mnuchin echoed the Speaker’s remarks to reporters before departing from the Capitol saying, “We made a lot of progress over the last few days. We still don’t have an agreement, but we have more work to do. And we’re going to see where we end up.”

Although Pelosi and Mnuchin didn’t reach a deal, the meeting was the first time the two had met since coronavirus negotiations sagged in early August due to the monetary scope of the package and specific provisions within it.

Democrats established a $2.2 trillion proposal—a bill that’s unlikely to become law considering House and Senate Republicans oppose it—to offer a slimmed-down version of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act passed by the House in May. House Democrats, however, have delayed its vote in hopes that Pelosi and Mnuchin will agree on a heavily bipartisan bill. If the two don’t reach a consensus, Democrats said they’ll proceed with the vote by the end of the week.

The $2.2 trillion package includes almost $500 billion for state and local aid, a continuation of the $600 weekly bonuses for unemployment insurance, another round of stimulus checks, nearly $75 billion for coronavirus testing measures and funds for schools, the U.S. Postal Service, election security and more. It also provides emergency funds to the airline industry to prevent future furloughs, a sector that’s been hit hard due to the discouragement of travel amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Mnuchin’s counter to the big-spending package proposed by Democrats is similar to the roughly $1.5 trillion proposal drafted by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House earlier in September, according to The Washington Post. Pelosi has shown little willingness to shave the $2.2 trillion in spending for the next negotiated package, while Senate Republicans are reluctant to spend more than $1 trillion.  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) squashed any sense of optimism for a bipartisan agreement before the election, as he said the two sides of the aisle were “very, very far apart.” McConnell failed to rally his colleagues’ support from the Senate in a scaled-down bill a few weeks ago that amounted to less than $1 trillion.

“We would like to see another rescue package,” McConnell said, referring to Pelosi’s proposal as “another massive measure that includes such things as health care for illegal immigrants, tax cuts for rich people in New York and California and other things that are totally unrelated to the coronavirus.”

"So I think it's safe to say we're far apart. I think Secretary Mnuchin and the Speaker are continuing to speak but we're very, very far apart," he told reporters.

As the United States surpassed two hundred thousand reported coronavirus deaths and millions of Americans remain unemployed with government aid depleted, Pelosi and Mnuchin face heated pressure to finally compromise and pass the next relief package. The Speaker, in particular, is being weighed down by moderate Democrats who are competing for re-election, as they disrelish being on Capitol Hill and prefer to campaign in their home states.

Some key provisions still in the talks that have stalled reaching an agreement are: whether to include legal liability protections as Republicans want them, but Democrats oppose; Democrats also want massive state and local aid, while Republicans balk at big-spending; and Democrats want a huge price tag, but Senate Republicans remain fiscally conservative.

Congress cooperated in the spring when the coronavirus first struck the United States, passing four bills that accounted for $3 trillion in aid, but Democrats and Republicans have struggled to act in the same manner in recent weeks. Negotiations between top lawmakers crumbled over the summer and ignited just a few days ago.

Despite anticipations that Senate Republicans will resist an upcoming package, many viewed the meeting as progress towards a potential settlement.

“Oh yeah, I think we’re gonna get a deal,” Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said. 

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.  

Image: Reuters

Peter Suciu

Security, Europe

It looks like the Royal Air Force may have found a way to do so.

Earlier this week the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had received the third S-400 Triumf missile air defense system regiment, but the question is whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has already made the system ineffective for targeting its aircraft. The S-400 was developed and produced by Almaz-Antey to provide protection from air strikes including cruise, tactical and operational ballistic missiles as well as intermediate-range missiles in a radio-jamming environment.

However, reports have circulated online that the Royal Air Force (RAF) along with the Royal Navy (RN), which have each increased patrols near Russian borders near where the S-400s and older S-300s are currently deployed, and have begun successfully jamming the radar systems. The S-400 and S-300 are designed to operate in conjunction to provide increased effectiveness of the Russian military’s Integrated Air Defense System (IADS).

The EurAsian Times reported that the United Kingdom’s military has scanned the frequencies of the defense system to enable aircraft to identify vulnerabilities in the Russian anti-aircraft platform. If that is true a window could be opened for stealth aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter to approach Russian airspace at a closer distance without being detected by the powerful radar on the S-400.

The Russian state media site Avia.Pro also suggested that the British military was studying for “holes” in the IADS, and that Russia may need to find a workaround to plug any weaknesses in its air defense platform.

Stealth Hunter or Hype

The S-400 surface-to-air-missile system has been touted as a stealth hunter, and as one of the most advanced long and medium-range surface-to-air missile platforms in use today. It was designed to detect and destroy aircraft as well as the aforementioned cruise and ballistic missiles, but is also capable of eliminating ground-based installations.

The platform, which entered service in 2007, has a range of up to 400 kilometers and its missiles can travel up to six times the speed of sound at heights up to 30 kilometers. The S-400 can also employ 40N6 long-range, hypersonic, surface-to-air missiles that can engage low maneuverable aerodynamic targets.

In theory at least, the S-400 was designed to nullify the stealth technology of fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35. However, it remains questionable whether the radar can do little more than potentially track the advanced aircraft. In other words, tracking may be possible to some extent but actually targeting is another issue all together.

The fact that the S-400 was designed to track stealth aircraft was a key sticking point in U.S. relations with Turkey, which has sought to adopt the Russian-built platform while also seeking to be a partner in the F-35 stealth fighter jet program. The United States, and other NATO partners, saw this as a serious conflict—one that could potentially give the S-400 designers the extra insight to provide an advantage for the anti-aircraft platform. As a result Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program.

The question now is whether the RAF have truly found a weakness in the S-400 that would enable the F-35 and other stealth aircraft to continue to maintain that stealthy edge.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters

An educator and rights defender who has spent more than 20 years rescuing exploited and trafficked children in Colombia, represents “the best of us”, the UN refugee chief said on Thursday, as she was named the winner of this year’s Nansen Refugee Award.

Stephen Silver

Technology, Americas

The roll out of the new technology continues.

Verizon announced this week that on October 1—which is Thursday—they will bring 5G home Internet to a new market, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. They also announced the arrival of a new router meant to work with the technology.

The addition brings the 5G home service to a seventh market, joining Sacramento, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, and Detroit.

The 5G Home Internet costs $50 per month for Verizon customers and $70 per month for non-Verizon customers. Those signing up will get free YouTube TV for one month and Disney+ for one year, along with a free Stream TV device.

The new deployment coincides with the arrival of a new product, the 5G Internet Gateway, which is described by the company as “a first-to-market MMwave 5G CPE/Router,” which allows for speeds up to 1 Gbps.

“Verizon’s new 5G Internet Gateway is a game-changer for our customers,” Frank Boulben, SVP Consumer Marketing and Products at Verizon, said in the announcement of the new product. “With people spending more time at home during these challenging times, the expansion of 5G Home Internet to new markets with new and improved hardware will provide customers with the flexibility and reliability to enjoy more digital experiences and increased productivity from the comfort of their home.”

When 5G Home Internet was launched, Verizon said that “the first 5G wireless network built to connect your home with ultra-fast internet that’s ready for what comes next. With 5G Home Internet, there are no long-term contracts or additional equipment or installation fees and all taxes and fees are included.”

As for whether home 5G will ever replace Wi-Fi, the consensus among experts is either “no,” or “not yet.”

“While it’s certainly possible that 5G can replace WiFi, there’s a good chance that it won’t,” ActionTec wrote in a 2019 blog post. “5G has too many limitations—like capacity and coverage issues. Plus, 5G and WiFi are better as complements rather that competition.”

Verizon, as of mid-August, was off to an early start in the 5G smartphone wars, at least in the U.S.

Of the 4.1 million 5G-capable phones that had been sold as of mid-July, Verizon was in first place with 2.2 million, followed by AT&T at 629,000, T-Mobile at 501,000 and Sprint at 483,000. Sprint and T-Mobile have since merged, and their combined subscriber total would be second to that of Verizon.

However, the 5G smartphone market is changing by the month, with the arrival of new phones all the time. The Google Pixel 5 was announced this week, and the first 5G-capable iPhones are expected next month.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

Governments should immediately address the inhumane conditions in detention faced by migrant workers who are also being blamed for spreading the coronavirus, a UN panel of independent rights experts said on Thursday.