Month: December 2021

Survey Confirms China Public Strongly Backs China-Russia Ties, China Berates US over Ukraine, Says Using Ukraine as Pawn
News Topic 374

GT investigates: Chinese value China-Russia ties over China-US relations amid West’s containment: GT poll

GT investigates: Chinese value China-Russia ties over China-US relations amid West’s containment: GT poll

In a rapidly changing world as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world in 2021, more Chinese people consider China-Russia and China-EU relations more important than China-US ties. It was also the first time in 15 years that China-US ties did not top the list of the important bilateral relations in the Global Times annual survey.

US making calculating move in dangerous game of Ukraine crisis: Global Times editorial

US making calculating move in dangerous game of Ukraine crisis: Global Times editorial

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference at the Moscow Manege on December 23, 2021. More than 500 journalists were invited to the press conference. Photo: VCG US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday that in the face of the current situation on the Ukrainian border, the US will work with its allies and prepare to “issue sanctions like you’ve not seen before.”

GT Voice: Ukraine to pay a price for targeting Chinese firm at US’ behest

GT Voice: Ukraine to pay a price for targeting Chinese firm at US’ behest

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, May 6, 2021.

 

Protests South Korea, Georgia, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and Argentina
***News Topic 674***

Officials say such imagery is ‘outside the established parameters’ of what’s permitted on sale

A US military base in Alaska has updated its guidelines regarding goods allowed to be sold on its grounds, after a vendor plied anti-Biden figurines to personnel.

A vendor temporarily working on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska had been selling miniature wooden statuettes deriding the president, according to local media. The figurines reportedly depicted a bear with some characteristically Trumpesque features, such as a shock of yellow hair and a long red tie, holding a sign reading “Let’s Go Brandon” – a phrase that has come to stand for “F**k Joe Biden.”

The phrase in question was first uttered at a NASCAR race in early October by an NBC reporter, who said he thought the spectators were cheering one of the drivers, Brandon Brown, when, in fact, the crowd was chanting expletives directed at Joe Biden. The slogan has since gained traction among critics of the incumbent US president.

The sale of such goods did not go unnoticed by officials, however, who swiftly updated the base’s guidelines on what items can and cannot be sold on military property. The Army & Air Force Exchange Service – a body tasked with overseeing the quality of goods and services sold on US military bases, both at home and overseas – deemed the bear figurines to “be outside the established parameters for resale.” Speaking to a local newspaper, a base representative said, “communication to incoming vendors will reflect the need to exclude products of this nature going forward.”

The vendor who had been selling the controversial statuettes had left the base by the time officials discovered the offending items and took action, as he was on a short-term contract.

The US Defense Department’s 2020 guidelines prohibit active-duty service members from overtly supporting politicians, causes, and campaigns lest the military become divided along partisan lines.

One of the final representatives of a species feared to be extinct has been spotted in a secret tunnel in the UK

Animal preservation activists had reason to rejoice this Christmas, after one of Britain’s last-known big bats was spotted hibernating in Sussex. A search for a mate to save the almost-extinct species has now begun in earnest.

Believed to be the nation’s most solitary animal, the greater mouse-eared bat, nicknamed ‘Lonely Joe’, was last seen in 2019. Concerns had been rising over the fate of the species, as he is thought to be the last survivor in the UK — once gone, it would be declared extinct. However, the country’s loneliest animal had been spotted over Christmas, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

A search for a partner for Lonely Joe has now been initiated. Animal lovers have been asked to look out for the big bats, the largest of Britain’s 11 bat species, whose wings can stretch to nearly 50cm (20in) when in flight.

The solitary male was first discovered in 2002. He’s believed to have been born that year, making him almost 20 years old now. However, for his species, he’s actually not that old, as greater mouse-eared bats can live for up to 35 years. He was carefully inspected once in 2007, and found to be in good health, according to The Guardian, but examination of his private parts showed he had never been sexually active.

For many winters, he has been hibernating in the same disused dark tunnel in Sussex. It’s exact location is being kept secret, so as not to disturb him, as troubling a bat mid-hibernation can be life-threatening for the species.

While Lonely Joe hangs motionless in his hiding place for almost five months every winter, where he spends the rest of the year remains unknown. Researchers considered putting a tag on him, but decided otherwise so as not to trouble him. The fact he flies only at night is another problem, as such tags are used primarily on migratory birds and are solar-powered.

Local authorities Down Under are looking to isolate cats – not due to some kind of new virus, but rather their outstanding hunting talents

A nationwide 24/7 lockdown for cats is just around the corner in Australia, officials believe, as figures reveal that billions of unique native animals fall prey to feline hunters annually.

“The latest statistics show that every year they [pet cats] predate more than 180 native animals; that’s just one pet cat,” Dean Huxley, an operations director at a wildlife hospital in Perth, told ABC.

The total number of kills for one feral cat stands at over 740 per year, according to the 2019 book ‘Cats in Australia: Companion and Killer’, which combined hundreds of studies on the issue.

This means that some three million mammals, two million reptiles, and one million marsupials become victims of cats every single day in Australia. And, according to Huxley, the death toll will only keep growing if something isn’t done.

Read more

Parrots’ drinking problems lead to flying accidents

“Cats are evolving and learning about the different wildlife and they’re now getting better at hunting these animals,” he pointed out. “And the more we clear habitat, which we are doing at an alarming rate, these animals have got less places to hide.”

In order to save the endemic wildlife from extinction, local authorities across Australia have already started placing harsh restrictions on the feline hunters.

Cat owners in the city of Greater Bendigo, Victoria have been ordered to keep their pets on their property or face fines, while Adelaide Hills in South Australia has introduced a feline curfew from 8pm to 7am.

The country’s capital, Canberra, plans to place all of its cats on lockdown starting from mid-2022, and the port city of Fremantle in Western Australia (WA) is also planning a clampdown.

The felines are currently banned from bushland areas in Fremantle, but Councilor Adin Lang wants them out of all city property, including roads, verges, and footpaths. This will effectively make them housebound.

His proposal still needs approval from the WA parliament, but its passing could pave the wave for similar curbs across the state and elsewhere in Australia, Lang insisted.

Read more

Microchip your cat or face fines, UK govt says

“I think like dogs, cats will soon be inside, and our future generations will look back and say to us: ‘You guys let cats roam around Australia, eating all our wildlife all these years?’” he said.

As for the cats, their owners could build them a “catio” – a special outdoor enclosure – so they could still get some fresh air, Lang added.

“Cats do adjust very well to captivity,” Huxley agreed, but he added that convincing the owners keeping their pets inside isn’t cruel might not be easy.

Pamela Lanigan, spokesperson for the Cats United WA group representing breeder and owners, said she was onboard with the restrictions. However, she pointed out that the most harm hadn’t been done by pet cats, but by several million of their feral counterparts.

In order to limit their numbers, so-called trap-neuter-release programs could be introduced, funded through registration fees paid by cat owners, Lanigan suggested.

“What can be done is they can be trapped, they can be de-sexed and then they can be released back into that environment so they actually can’t reproduce anymore, but they will stop other cats from coming into that environment, and that’s something that’s done a lot in America,” she explained.

Scientists have captured images of a supermassive black hole some 12 million light years from Earth

A new study of the nearest actively feeding supermassive black hole has revealed that the space phenomenon emits radio bubbles which extend over vast tracts of space when it feeds on infalling gas.

In a piece published in Nature Astronomy on December 22, Dr. Benjamin McKinley from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), who led the study, said that this “most comprehensive” image to date shows the true extent of the disturbance to space caused as supermassive black holes feed.

McKinley’s research provides the best images to date of Earth’s nearest neighboring radio galaxy, Centaurus A, a star system located 12 million light years away with a black hole at its center.

The images captured by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in the Australian outback show radio bubbles which are created when black holes feed on infalling gas and eject material at near-light speed. 

These radio bubbles – or ‘lobes’, as they are known to radio astronomers – appear to be 48 times the size of the host galaxy itself and currently extend eight degrees across the sky, approximately the length of 16 of Earth’s moons laid side by side.

The lobes form “a disc around the black hole, and as the matter gets ripped apart going close to the black hole, powerful jets form on either side of the disc, ejecting most of the material back out into space, to distances of probably more than a million light years,” McKinley stated.

He contended that this research overcomes the limitations of existing studies. “Previous radio observations could not handle the extreme brightness of the jets, and details of the larger area surrounding the galaxy were distorted, but our new image overcomes these limitations,” the scientist noted.

The astronomer said that the study is just the start, with fellow scientists looking to develop a more complete understanding of how black holes feed and their impact on the surrounding environment.

A new documentary has accused the US intelligence agency of supporting experiments on several hundred Scandinavian children

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly backed secret experiments into schizophrenia on 311 Danish children, many adopted or from orphanages, during the early 1960s, according to a newly released documentary.

Danish Radio’s documentary ‘The Search for Myself’ accuses the US spy agency of supporting the experiments at the Municipal Hospital in Cophenhagen. The studies were reportedly investigating the link between schizophrenia and heredity or the environment.

Per Wennick, who claims to have been a participant in the experiments as a child, alleged that he was placed in a chair, with electrodes strapped to him and forced to listen to loud, shrill noises. The aim of the test was supposedly to find out if a child had psychopathic traits.

“It was very uncomfortable. And it’s not just my story, it’s the story of many children,” Wennick said, describing his experience.

I think this is a violation of my rights as a citizen in this society. I find it so strange that some people should know more about me than I myself have been aware of.

The project was co-financed by a US health service, receiving support from the Human Ecology Fund, which is operated on behalf of the CIA, according to Wennick and the National Archives.

Read more

Secret JFK assassination documents released

While the children were not told what the experiments were for, during or after the research, a dissertation was published in 1977 by Danish psychiatrist Find Schulsinger detailing the study.

The Danish Welfare Museum’s Jacob Knage Rasmussen said that this is the first documented time where children under care were used for research purposes in the country.

“I do not know of similar attempts, neither in Denmark nor in Scandinavia. It is appalling information that contradicts the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which after World War II was to set some ethical restrictions for experiments on humans” Rasmussen stated.

Four who helped migrants cross a closed border from Vietnam have been paraded through streets

Authorities in China’s Guangxi region have publicly shamed four people accused of violating rules on Covid-19 by aiding migrants crossing the closed border from Vietnam, according to state news.

State-run news agencies reported on Wednesday that four alleged violators of Covid-19 rules were publicly shamed on Tuesday. The four suspects, clothed in hazmat suits, were paraded around Guangxi region’s Jingxi city in front of a large crowd.

Accompanied by authorities in Hazmat suits, and a large riot police presence, the suspects were seen holding placards displaying their photos and names. Each of the four accused were held by two police officers. 

广西靖西的恐怖游街示众！
野蛮残暴的文革式运动又回来了！ 你希望这种民主生活吗？pic.twitter.com/jm9K4kVUFq

— 婉清 (@1X1G3Lr7pBe1AJR) December 28, 2021

Obrazki jak z czasów Rewolucji Kulturalnej. A to Jingxi w prow. Kuangsi i 4 osoby oskarżone o przemycanie ludzi przez granicę prowadzone na plac przed zgromadzonych na nim mieszkańców. Urzędnicy nie wiedzą w tych „dyscyplinarnych działaniach ostrzegawczych” niczego niestosowanego pic.twitter.com/MQCuzeJ3az

— Krzysztof Pawliszak (@luigiluib) December 29, 2021

The four were supposedly punished for transporting illegal migrants from Vietnam. China has imposed strict measures at the border to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from neighboring countries.

Jingxi is near the Chinese border with Vietnam.

A regional news channel said the parade provided a “real-life warning” to the public, and “deterred border-related crimes.”

However, the move has been criticized in other news outlets. Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Beijing News said on Wednesday that despite the pressure on the border city to maintain appropriate Covid-19 prevention measures, public shaming is a step too far.

“The measure seriously violates the spirit of the rule of law and cannot be allowed to happen again,” it read.

The public shaming of criminal suspects in China has been outlawed since 2010. The practice has reportedly resurfaced in recent months as local governments struggle to enforce Beijing’s zero-Covid policy.

Similar scenes were filmed in November and in August, when armed police escorted a suspect through the street to a children’s playground.

A new report has accused the authorities of putting already vulnerable teenagers at more serious risk

A review of England’s care system has found that the safeguarding system is “unfit for purpose” and is in urgent need of being reformed, as it is putting teenagers in a “bleak” position where they are at risk of exploitation.

The Commission on Young Lives report, released on Wednesday, found that the existing care system is “infuriatingly inadequate” due to a shortage of accommodation, failure to identify exploitation, and cuts to funding.

It also claimed that the English care system is flawed in that it moves young people from their local areas to unregulated accommodation targeted by criminals.

The report even alleged that criminal gangs have been informed by local authorities that vulnerable teenagers were recently moved to an area, leaving them at risk of exploitation.

Read more

Children with disabilities offered ‘do not resuscitate’ orders amid pandemic

This sees young people put “in even greater danger” than before they entered the care system, making the current situation “unfit for purpose.”

Seeking to address the issue, the report urged officials to “urgently” start “reforming the system” by launching a taskforce and banning unregulated accommodation for under-18s in care.

The commission was launched in September 2021 to explore failures in the current system and seek to prevent at-risk children and young people from “falling into violence, exploration and the criminal justice system.”

Backed by the Oasis Charitable Trust, which supports young people in over 40 neighborhoods across England, it aims to provide a solution to the “ever-present” threats that “destroy lives and prospects.”

Responding to the report, the UK government said it is working on “urgently reforming the system to address growing pressures,” citing how it is investing £259 million ($348.13 million) to boost accommodation and £45 million ($60.49 million) to help vulnerable children.

The British government is struggling to find permanent homes for the refugees, who were evacuated in the summer

Some 12,000 Afghan refugees will start 2022 in a hotel in the UK, despite having arrived months ago during the evacuation of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, as the British government reportedly struggles to find homes for them.

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that the government was struggling to persuade local councils to find permanent homes for the thousands of Afghan refugees who relocated to Britain following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The group launched a military offensive during the summer and took Kabul on August 15. 

Sources within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Home Office told the paper that more than 12,000 Afghan evacuees remained in the so-called ‘bridging accommodation’ as of December 22.

According to the DWP, of the 16,500 people airlifted from Afghanistan to Britain since August, “over 4,000 individuals have either moved into a settled home or are in the process of being moved or matched to a suitable home.”

The government has struggled to find permanent or suitable homes for refugees, meaning they remain in hotel accommodation at the taxpayer’s expense.

According to a Home Office spokesperson, more than 300 local authorities have come forward to offer permanent homes, but the scale of the offering has not met demand. 

Officials representing councils in London told the Guardian that many of the hotels being used were unsuitable for long-term stays, especially for children.

Some 7,500 people had been relocated to the UK under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (ARAP) as of December 7. The plan offered sanctuary and asylum to Afghans who faced danger due to their affiliation with Britain and its two-decade-long operations in Afghanistan.

Around 15,000 people were brought to the UK during Operation Pitting in August. A further 1,500 have been airlifted to Britain in the following months.
Many Afghans have reached British shores by their own means and have claimed asylum.