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Biden lands in Europe with domestic spending plans in limbo
Rtv news
29 Oct 2021, 12:48
Photo: Collected
US President Joe Biden has arrived in Europe for two international summits, leaving his $2.75tn (£2tn) domestic agenda in limbo back in Washington.
Mr Biden had hoped to trumpet a bumper environmental package to other world leaders at a UK climate conference.
But his fellow Democrats abandoned plans for a vote on Thursday, leaving his whole platform up in the air.
Mr Biden, whose approval rating has been falling, said his presidency itself was hanging in the balance.
He landed in Rome early on Friday for a G20 summit where plans for a global minimum tax will be on the agenda.
America's second Catholic president will also meet Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday.
He will then head to Scotland on Sunday night for the United Nations climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow.
Mr Biden will seek to project the message that the US is back in the fight against global warming after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the Paris climate accord.
Before leaving the White House for Rome, Mr Biden unveiled a scaled-down spending plan which was the product of months of haggling.
He implored fellow Democrats during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill to support his legislative plans, saying he wanted to prove during the two summits that US democracy still works.
"The rest of the world wonders whether we can function," he was quoted as saying by US media.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on rank-and-file Democrats not to embarrass Mr Biden by revolting.
But the more liberal members of the party refused to go along with the plans without a guarantee that both spending packages would be voted on in tandem.
Mr Biden is firstly trying to rally Democrats around a $1tn infrastructure package, which has already passed the Senate.
He is also trying to pass a pared-down bill costing at least $1.75tn, which the White House calls Build Back Better.
The green spending would seek to dramatically slash US greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, provide new tax breaks for electric vehicles and roll out installation of solar panels on American homes.
It also includes $100bn for unspecified reforms to the nation's immigration system, according to US media. The president has argued that the spending will be fully paid for by tax hikes on corporations and multimillionaires.
Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders said it was "probably the most consequential bill since the 1960s", but added that there were some major gaps in it.
Progressives are unhappy because the plan does not include paid family leave, free community college, a large healthcare expansion, a tax on billionaires, or lower prescription drug prices.
Those sceptical of the bill also demanded to see the text of the legislation, leading the House of Representatives to release 1,684 pages on Thursday.
The original price tag for the proposal was $3.5tn, but it has been cut in half at the insistence of two moderate Democratic senators who could doom the bill in the evenly split Senate.
The objections by Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have infuriated the liberal wing of the party.
On Thursday Mr Manchin and Ms Sinema issued lukewarm statements that still declined to back the president's stripped-down bill.
The House will not vote on the infrastructure bill until next week at the earliest. Mr Biden is due back in Washington on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Mr Biden can still try legislative arm-twisting by phone from Rome.
The president's job approval rating, meanwhile, has slumped to 42.5% in the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Source: BBC
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China outlaws place names that fail to conform to its territorial claims
China has made it clear Mar 15 that geographical names in ethnic minority or foreign languages should reflect the country’s sovereign and extraterritorial claims when translated into Chinese characters. These would include names of islands in the South China Sea, places in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state, and the name of the occupied territory of Tibet.
For this purpose, the Ministry of Civil Affairs published on Mar 15, implementation measures addressing the management of geographical names, which detailed the requirements for translation of place names in ethnic minority or foreign languages into Chinese characters, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Mar 16.
China recently made it clear that the Chinese name “Xizang” should be used in place of “Tibet” or “Tibet Autonomous Region” to refer to “Xizang Autonomous Region”, which is roughly only the western half of Tibet proper. It thereby made it clear that “Tibet” proper, which includes the Qinghai province and other territories merged with its Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces as well, no longer exists and should not be used in official documents as a placename.
Set to take effect from May 1, 2024, the implementation measures have stipulated in Article 13 that “place name in foreign language that may harm China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorization.”
The report cited the implementation measures as saying translation of place names in foreign languages or minority languages should comply with standards formulated by related organs of the State Council, which is China’s cabinet. The standard translations are or will be made public through notices, the national database for geographical names and official publications on geographical names.
The report noted that the State Council had issued a revised regulation on place names in Apr 2022, which was applicable to naming, renaming, usage, cultural protection and other management on geographical names within Chinese territories.
In this connection, Zhi Zhenfeng, a research fellow with the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has said that as China still has disputes over some territories with certain neighbouring countries, the use of geographical names of places in disputes directly relates to sovereign rights. Using the incorrect translation or non-standard translation could cause confusion and encroach China’s territorial integrity, he has sought to stress.
The report cited Chinese analysts as mentioning the example of maritime disputes in the South China Sea with countries like the Philippines. When referring to islands and reefs concerned, the use of standard translation is a firm declaration of sovereignty and transliteration of foreign names means concession of legal rights, they were cited as saying.
The report also noted that the Ministry of Civil Affairs had standardized the names of 11 places in Zangnan (the southern part of Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region) in Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin in Apr 2023. Using standard place names helps raise awareness of Chinese territory, it cited Chinese “experts” as saying.
The report said the Apr 2023 issuance was the third list of standardized geographical names in “Zangnan” published by the ministry. It added that the first list of the standardized names of six places in “Zangnan” was released in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021.
Source: Tibetan Review
Rare hippo species born in Athens Zoo
The endangered pygmy hippopotamus' birth was "extremely important" fot the Athens zoo. Its name will be decided by a vote.
It was the first birth in 2024 for Athens' Attica Zoological Park that made conservationists extremely happy: an endangered and rare potamus is now part of a hippo family in Greece.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed pygmy hippos as an endangered species. About 2,000-2,5000 are estimated to live in the wild. Their natural habitats are swamps and rainforests in western Africa.
"Every captive birth of pygmy hippos is extremely important. We're very happy to see this baby grow into a healthy adult hippo, and hopefully one day reproduce," the zoo's wildlife veterinarian Noi Psaroudaki told Reuters news agency in a report published Wednesday.
Calf's name to be decided by vote
One of the reasons that breeding in captivity has been complicated is the lack of male animals. So, the reaction was accordingly when the zoo found out that the little one is a male hippo.
The calf was born on February 19 and currently weighs 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds). It has no name yet, as it still has to be decided by vote. The hippo is now joining his parents, Lizzie and Jamal, who are the only ones of their species in the zoo.
Baby pygmo hippo will remain with its mother for the next couple of months before it can explore the outdoors enclosure.
TikTok For Sale: Who can buy it and how much will it cost?
The US government is demanding that TikTok sell itself if it wants to continue operating in America. How likely is a sale, who can afford it and what are the challenges of such a takeover?
For Sale: One of the world's most successful social media platforms with a billion users across 140 countries.
Sounds like a good deal for someone with ambition and money. But Chinese-owned TikTok isn't just any short-video-sharing app. It is a phenomenon changing social media and how people communicate.
Claims of national security concerns in the US don't make things any easier. Plus protectionist attitudes and sentiment on China in general have turned dark and Congress is moving fast to force the company's hand.
US Congress in control?
The US government now sees TikTok as more than entertainment — it is a news and information platform that can be used for propaganda, too. For decades, the US had restrictions on foreign ownership of traditional media like radio or cable stations; for policymakers restrictions on TikTok are a logical 21st-century consequence.
On March 13, the US House of Representatives voted to force a sale of TikTok's US business within six months or have it banned from the Apple and Google app stores in the country. To become law, the bill needs Senate approval. President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it if it passes Congress.
TikTok may be waiting for a knight in shining armor to save its US business. Yet the pool of available buyers is small and Elon Musk is already busy reworking X, formerly known as Twitter. Who else can they turn to? What will happen to the 170 million US users if TikTok just can't be sold?
A short history in 60 seconds
This isn't TikTok's first time on the possible selling block. Donald Trump tried with an executive order to force ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to sell the subsidiary to an American owner back in 2020.
It seemed a deal with Oracle was close, but those efforts failed, as did an attempt to keep the app out of app stores.
Since then TikTok says it has gone to great lengths to delete the data on American users from ByteDance servers and move all that information to US-based servers, a move it calls Project Texas. This should in theory keep the data out of the hands of Chinese surveillance.
Many experts like Milton Mueller, a cybersecurity expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, doubt there is any real security threat after having looked at all the evidence. Still, many US politicians and government intelligence and security agencies don't seem appeased and want to take it to the next level.
Who would want to buy TikTok?
With all that in mind, buying all — or just the American part — of TikTok would not be a usual business transaction. It would be a geopolitical minefield. Would ByteDance still be a majority shareholder calling the shots in the background? Who would run and update its powerful algorithm?
Mueller, who looks at TikTok several times a week, thinks a sale is "theoretically possible but highly complicated and not likely." Adding that "China's government might not allow it, and it is unclear what is gained, or even what it means, to sell 'part' of a globally interconnected social media service."
ByteDance seems ready for a legal fight. For its part, the Chinese government has been restrained. But they could try to prevent a sale by putting an export ban on the technology behind the app. Without its algorithm, TikTok would be less attractive.
Besides that, it is hard to put boundaries and prevent access to something as free-flowing as an app. App stores would have to block all new downloads and updates for those who have it already.
There is also a short timeline. Mueller has talked with a number of TikTok people recently who say as a technical or operational matter divestiture doesn't work in such a short period. They would have six months, "whereas the Grindr divestiture from a different Chinese company took a year," he said.
A big big-ticket item
The challenges just pile up. Any ban in America would surely lead to First Amendment constitutional challenges. "It would be US users whose speech would be suppressed, not foreigners or the Chinese government," Mueller said.
Then there is the price. Several analysts think that despite all the difficulties TikTok's US business could sell for over $50 billion (€45.8 billion). There are only a few companies that could afford to spend that much like Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft or Netflix.
Some of these companies would then end up in the crosshairs of antitrust officials for owning too much important technology.
Alternatively, all or part of TikTok could be spun off as an independent publicly listed company. Or US-based private equity giants could step in.
After last week's House vote, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said he is working to put together a group of investors to take over the company without announcing any details. Ironically, Mnuchin was one of the people pushing for a sale four years ago while he was a member of Donald Trump's Cabinet.
It is likely not about apps at all
Yet, in the end, it is not about good business or even national security says Milton Mueller. "It is a pawn in the broader US-China power competition, and it is also exploited for symbolic reasons."
"Equating a commercial social media app with espionage, and calling TikTok's Singaporean CEO an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, is obviously inaccurate," but sells well to both Republicans and Democrats "who see the US as engaged in a competition with China to retain US hegemony," he said.
Forcing an ownership sale would also set a dangerous precedent that could be used by other governments against US social media companies.
In the end, Mueller expects such digital protectionism to lead to "less competition and innovation in the social media market." And there is always the next national security threat. Perhaps Chinese-made electric vehicles or battery systems? The retaliation may never end.
Warehouse developers bet on India as companies look beyond China
Land is getting hard to find in a sprawling industrial park in southern India where workers are scrambling to build modern new warehouses and factories for companies betting on the country's economic boom or diversifying their supply chains beyond China.
"It is one of the most wanted places in India for European and American companies," said S Raghuraman, an official of the Greenbase industrial park, near plants run by Apple supplier Foxconn and truckmaker Daimler, Reuters reports.
Inquiries for leasing space in the park, run by Blackstone and real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani, have gone through the roof, he added.
"We are in talks with at least three clients looking to shift their base from China."
To meet the burgeoning demand, Greenbase aims to invest $800 million to quadruple its industrial park space to 20 million sq ft (1.9 million sq m), a target it revealed for the first time.
That is just the latest sign of a rush for leased warehouse space that peaked in the last quarter of 2023 at its highest in two years, says real estate firm Colliers, as India's economic growth of more than 8% outstrips advanced nations.
Businesses in India have traditionally relied on dingy, stuffy low-rise sheds known as godowns for their storage needs, but these are unsuited to the needs of foreign industrial giants whose investment Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to lure.
So developers such as Greenbase are scouting for land nationwide, grappling with thorny acquisition issues, as they line up millions of dollars in new investment.
Prime targets are firms looking to expand manufacturing facilities beyond China as tension with the United States and other countries takes off some of its shine.Companies in the booming e-commerce and manufacturing industries also see India as a hub for exports while looking to boost sales to industries and domestic consumers amid a population of 1.4 billion.
US Diplomat Donald Lu denies Pushing Pakistani ex-PM Khan Out of Office
For the first time a top U.S. diplomat for South and Central Asia has for the first time publicly addressed allegations of conspiring to oust Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2022.
US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu on Wednesday rubbished former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s allegations his government was ousted via a conspiracy orchestrated by Washington, describing it as a “conspiracy theory” and a “lie.”
"These allegations, this conspiracy theory, is a lie, it is a complete falsehood," Lu said while responding to a question by committee Chairman Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican from the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Cypher conspiracy
In April 2022, Khan was expelled from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
Khan has since alleged that a secret diplomatic cable, or cypher, sent by then-Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. Asad Majeed Khan, proves the United States conspired with Pakistan's military and opposition leaders to remove him from office. The cable described a March 7, 2022, meeting with Lu in Washington.
Last August, an American news outlet, The Intercept, published what it said was the text of the cipher.
According to Ambassador Khan's purported cable, the State Department officials at the meeting encouraged Khan to tell Pakistan's powerful military that Islamabad could expect warmer relations if Khan were removed from office because of his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Pakistani prime minister was in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day the invasion began and failed to condemn it.
"I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. … Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead," the document quoted Lu as telling the Pakistani ambassador.
While the State Department has consistently rejected the allegation of conspiring in Khan's ouster, the department's spokesperson Mathew Miller conceded last year that the Biden administration was unhappy with Khan's overtures to Russia.
"We expressed concern privately to the government of Pakistan as we expressed concerns publicly about the visit of then-Prime Minister Khan to Moscow on the very day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We made that concern quite clear," Miller said at a regular press conference while responding to a question about The Intercept's reporting.
The Pakistani military and Khan's opponents also have rejected his allegations.
The former Pakistani prime minister is currently serving a 10-year prison term for revealing the contents of the secret cable, a charge he rejects as politically motivated.
Lu called the reporting of the diplomatic cable in Pakistani media inaccurate.
"At no point does it [the cypher] accuse the United States' government or me personally of taking steps against Imran Khan," he told the committee.
Lu pointed out that Pakistan's now-former ambassador Khan had also testified to his government that there was no U.S. conspiracy to remove the prime minister from office.
In March 2022, Pakistan's National Security Committee headed by Khan issued a demarche to the U.S ambassador over his country's "interference" in Pakistan's politics.
After Khan's ouster, however, another NSC committee headed by then-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif concluded that the diplomatic cable did not indicate any U.S. conspiracy.
"We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan. We respect the principle that Pakistani people should be the only ones choosing their own leaders through a democratic process," Lu told Wednesday's hearing.
The assistant secretary was disrupted several times as some in the audience called him a liar. The proceedings stopped on a few occasions, and Capital Police removed some in attendance for being disruptive.
Lu told the committee that he has received several death threats, and his family also has been threatened over "unfounded allegations" since Khan's removal.
Election irregularities
Addressing reports of irregularities in Pakistan's February 8 general elections, Lu said the Biden administration was persistently urging Pakistani authorities to investigate.
"We as a partner of Pakistan have called for that to be done transparently and fully and for those found responsible for irregularities to be held accountable."
Pakistan's much-delayed elections faced several controversies. A state-backed crackdown on Khan's party, pre-election violence including terror attacks, suspension of mobile internet services on Election Day, and a massive delay in announcing results led local and international observers to question the fairness of the vote.
The United States, U.K. and the EU have called on Pakistan to probe the discrepancies.
In a February 28 letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a bipartisan group of 31 members of the U.S. Congress urged the administration not to recognize Pakistan's new government until "a thorough, transparent, and credible investigation of election interference" was conducted.
In a statement on April 13, though, Blinken congratulated Sharif on being elected as prime minister of Pakistan. U.S. ambassador to Islamabad Donald Blome has since met Pakistan's new president, prime minister, as well as foreign and finance ministers.
Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas who was among the authors of the letter, questioned Lu on the administration recognizing Sharif's government.
"We do not go around recognizing or withholding recognition. We decide whether we are going to engage with the government," said Lu.
Pakistan's polls delivered a hung parliament. Khan's party had to field candidates as independents after it was deprived of a unified elections symbol.
Although candidates backed by Khan's PTI won the largest number of seats in the lower house of the parliament, Sharif's party, which came in second, formed a coalition government with Khan's opponents.
Source: Voice of America
Spain: Judge orders Telegram to be blocked nationwide
Media companies claim Telegram is allowing users to upload their content without permission. A Spanish court has now ordered for the platform to be suspended as a "precautionary measure."
The use of the messaging application Telegram in Spain will be temporarily suspended as of Monday, following a request from media companies.
The order was issued by judge Santiago Pedraz of the Audencia Nacional, a high court which handles sensitive cases.
Media companies, including Atresmedia, EGEDA, Mediaset, and Telefonica, complained that Telegram was allowing users to upload their content without permission.
While the claims are being investigated, Pedraz agreed to block Telegram's services in Spain. According to the court source, it will be the responsibility of mobile operators to block Telegram's services.
Why was the order issued?
The judge issued the order after officials in the Virgin Islands, where Telegram is registered, failed to respond to a court request from July 2023.
The court wanted information that would allow it to identify who was behind the accounts in question that were uploading apparently pirated content.
The lack of cooperation from the Virgin Islands led him to take this "precautionary measure," the judge said in Friday's order.
Consumer group slams ruling
Consumer advocacy group Facua criticized the ruling as disproportionate, warning that it would cause "enormous damage" to millions of the platform's users.
"It is as if they shut down the internet because there are websites that illegally host content protected by copyright," Facua's general secretary Ruben Sanchez said.
Telegram is the fourth most used messaging service in Spain, according to the competition watchdog CNMC. It was used by almost 19% of Spaniards surveyed by the CNMC.
Telegram claims to have 700 million monthly active users all over the world. The company has had to deal with blocking in a number of countries, from Brazil to Somalia.
More than 100 kidnapped schoolchildren rescued in Nigeria
The children had been kidnapped two weeks ago from their school in Kaduna. It comes as more and more criminal gangs in the area turn to abductions to seek out large ransoms.
Over 100 kidnapped schoolchildren were rescued in northern Nigeria on Sunday after they were abducted two weeks ago.
The mass kidnapping of 287 students in Kuriga, in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, was the first mass abduction in the West African country since 2021.
Authorities said 137 students — 76 girls and 61 boys — were rescued in the neighboring Zamfara State.
"In the early hours of 24 March 2024, the military working with local authorities and government agencies across the country in a coordinated search and rescue operation rescued the hostages," army spokesperson Major General Edward Buba said.
This represented all the students who were in captivity. The reported numbers for mass abductions in Nigeria are often lowered after people who went missing while fleeing attacks return home.
Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said the children were unharmed.
Children released ahead of ransom deadline
The children were released days before a deadline to pay a $690,000 (€635,000) ransom.
Ransoms are commonly paid for kidnappings in Nigeria, but it is rare for officials to admit to payments.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had previously vowed to rescue the children "without paying a dime."
"This is indeed a day of joy," he added.
They will be escorted back to their home state for medical tests before being reunited with their families.
