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Beijing, Apr 14 (Prensa Latina) Chinese President Xi Jinping received here today his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and formally welcomed him on his state visit to China.

Xi received the South American leader at the Great People’s Palace with the honors corresponding to his high investiture, before proceeding to the official talks.

The first moment of the meeting was open to the press and was followed by another segment, but behind closed doors.

During the presidential meeting, the two leaders are expected to review the bilateral agenda and analyze a proposal by Lula to form a club of mediators in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

At the end of their talks, both will witness the signing of some twenty agreements between their countries covering multiple sectors.

Before meeting with Xi, Lula spoke with Premier Li Qiang, the parliamentary leader, Zhao Leji, and the president of the state electricity corporation, Zhang Zhigang.

To all three he expressed Brazil’s willingness to strengthen the strategic partnership, expand trade and investment flows, as well as join forces with China to promote a balance in world geopolitics.

He also had a contact with representatives of the All China Federation of Trade Unions and paid tribute to the martyrs of this country with the placement of a wreath in front of the Heroes Monument, located in the central Tiananmen Square.

The Brazilian dignitary arrived last night in Beijing from the municipality of Shanghai (east), where he had a marathon day of meetings and tours of centers of economic interest yesterday. His visit will conclude tomorrow.

Chae Hui Chol has been approved as ambassador to West African country

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Burkina Faso plans to resume diplomatic relations with North Korea, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday.

The decision will allow the two countries "to maintain exemplary bilateral cooperation in several areas," Foreign Affairs Minister Olivia Rouamba said at the end of a Council of Ministers meeting.

The West African nation suspended relations with North Korea in 2017 to conform to UN Security Council sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

Rouamba said the governments of Burkina Faso and North Korea will reportedly be focusing on military equipment, mining, healthcare, agriculture and research

The Burkinabe government has also approved the appointment of a North Korean ambassador to Burkina Faso.

Chae Hui Chol, has been approved as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to Burkina Faso, with residence in Dakar, Senegal, according to a statement from the Ministerial Council.

In the past, Burkina Faso has maintained "very good relations with this country, which was a privileged partner during the period of the August 1983 Revolution," said Rouamba.

The government officially cut off relations in 2017 using a provision recommended by the United Nations to all its member states in its sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.

Faced with a security crisis fueled since 2015 by terrorist attacks, Burkina Faso, under the leadership of Capt. Ibrahim Traore, the leader of the ruling junta, decided to diversify its partnerships to strengthen the fight against terrorism. In January, the transitional authorities broke a military agreement with France, its former colonist.

This is "a way of asserting its authority by contracting diplomatic relations with countries unconsidered by France," Regis Hounkpe, a pan-African expert in geostrategy, told Anadolu.​​​​​​​

The fight against terrorism and the need to face it by its own means or military cooperation is only an additional element of the distancing from France, he said.

The country is set to avoid a recession but Britons face the highest taxes since WWII, an official report shows

Britons are facing the biggest decline in living standards since records began in the 1950s, and the highest taxes since the World War II as the economy grinds to a halt this year, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, real household disposable income, a measure of real living standards, will drop by 5.7% over the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

“While this is 1.4 percentage points less than forecast in November, it would still be the largest two-year fall since records began in 1956-57,” the report said.

A surge in energy and consumer goods prices triggered inflation, which currently stands above nominal wages and has led to a historic fall in disposable incomes, the OBR noted, adding that “this means that real living standards are still 0.4% lower than their pre-pandemic levels.”

According to the forecast, living standards will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2028 and the tax burden remains on course to be the highest since the Second World War.

The UK “continues to see the tax burden reach a post-war high of 37.7% of GDP at the forecast horizon in 2027-28, including the highest ratio of corporation tax receipts to GDP since the tax was introduced in 1965,” the watchdog said.

The British economy is expected to shrink by 0.2% this year despite claims by the government that the country is set to avoid a recession.

Moscow, Mar 15 (Prensa Latina) Russian forces today took control of the Zaliznyanskoye settlement and are expanding the encirclement of Artiomovsk in the Donetsk People's Republic, the head of the Wagner military company, Evgueni Prigozhin, said.

‘Wagner assault detachments are expanding the encirclement of Artiomovsk (Bakhmut for Ukrainians), after they liberated the small locality of Zaliznianskoye on Wednesday,’ Prigozhin reported on his Telegram channel.

Artiomovsk is located in the part of the Donetsk People’s Republic controlled by Kiev and is an important transport center for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbas.

Over this important communications junction fierce battles have been raging since the summer of last year. On March 11, Prigozhin reported that Russian forces were 1.2 km from the administrative center of Artiomovsk, dominating all the surrounding heights.

In the city there are, according to intelligence estimates, between 10,000 and 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers, who are in danger of being encircled by Russian units.

Settlements between the countries could be arranged in local currencies or gold, an African politician has suggested

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The central banks of Russia and Zimbabwe should establish settlements in local currencies and look at opportunities for securing trade in gold reserves, the speaker of the Zimbabwean ruling party ZANU-PF, Christopher Mutsvangwa, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

The southern African country has been under Western sanctions for 22 years, the official noted, adding that curbs imposed on Russia should not handicap trade between the two countries.

Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia and countries in Africa were developing a cooperation strategy to replace the US dollar and the euro in settlements, adding that the parties were preparing documents on rearranging the mechanism of cooperation under Western sanctions.

“Our banks should find a way to make the Russian ruble and the Zimbabwean dollar freely convertible. Also, our countries both have rich gold reserves. We are among the top seven countries in terms of gold mining, and production volumes are growing. We are now mining 35 tons per year, but we could mine all 50. So we could think about securing our trade in gold reserves,” Mutsvangwa suggested.

The official went on to say that “nothing could derail” trade between Moscow and Harare, noting that China, India, and Middle Eastern nations were also moving towards abandoning the dollar in settlements.

The politician also proposed establishing more banks that use alternative payment systems to replace the West’s SWIFT messaging system. He noted that trade in dollars was “a limiting factor” adding that Russia and African nations should set up “more banks outside of the US-run global SWIFT banking system.”

Moscow has been steadily pursuing a policy of de-dollarization in foreign trade. In recent years, Russia and some of its trade partners, including India and China, have been ramping up the use of domestic currencies in mutual settlements in an effort to move away from the dollar and euro.

Links to Russia’s new trade partners in African countries, including Zimbabwe, have been quickly taking shape in recent years. In 2019, Russia hosted the first Russia-Africa Summit, with participants outlining priority areas for economic cooperation, security, culture and science. The second summit is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg in July.

Diplomatic ties with Taiwan have become a flashpoint in Central America, where Beijing is looking to deepen links.

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Honduras President Xiomara Castro has said she wants her country to open official diplomatic ties with China, in a move that would end its official relationship with the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

Castro, who said during her election campaign in 2021 that she would switch ties to Beijing before later backtracking, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night that she had instructed her foreign minister to begin the process of recognising the People’s Republic of China.

end of list The move was “a sign of my determination to comply with the Government Plan and expand borders freely,” she wrote.

“We have to look at things very pragmatically and seek the best benefit for the Honduran people,” Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina later told local television, according to the Reuters news agency.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it had expressed serious concern to the Honduran government and urged it to consider its decision carefully and not “fall into China’s trap.”

While Xiomara did not mention Taiwan in her tweet, China does not allow countries to maintain formal relations with Taipei if they recognise Beijing.

Analysts said Honduras move was not unexpected given Xiomara’s campaign comments and recent discussions with China about financial assistance – in February Reina announced Beijing would provide the funding for another dam along the Patuka River.

“I think we are somewhat prepared, so I don’t think it’s going to be a big issue,” Yao-yuan Yeh, the director of the Taiwan and East Asia Studies Programme at the University of St Thomas in Texas told Al Jazeera. “But it could cause the public in Taiwan to have a little panic since we’ve been abandoned by another country again.”

China has been trying to deepen links with Taipei’s remaining allies since Tsai Ing-wen was first elected president of Taiwan in 2016. Several countries, including the Solomon Islands, have made the switch.

In Central America, a region that the United States has long seen as within its sphere of influence, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2021. If Honduras does switch, only Belize and Guatemala will formally recognise Taiwan, which will be left with just 13 formal diplomatic allies around the world, compared with 22 when Tsai took office.

“Central American recognition of Taiwan is a legacy of the Cold War,” Bruno Binetti, a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and an expert in China relations in Latin America, told Al Jazeera in emailed comments. “Much has changed since then, including China’s spectacular economic rise. Decades ago Taiwan was actually a more appealing economic partner than China. That’s ancient history, Taiwan just can’t compete with China’s huge market.”

‘Borrowed time’ Tsai, viewed by Beijing as a ‘separatist’, has previously accused China of ‘dollar diplomacy‘ over the issue of diplomatic recognition, which has also seen Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China (ROC), excluded from international bodies such as the World Health Assembly and International Civil Aviation Organisation.

“When it comes to diplomatic allies, it seems Taiwan is on borrowed time,” said Sana Hashmi, a visiting fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation in Taipei. “Since 2016, this has been China’s mission to shrink Taiwan’s international space and punish Taiwan.”

The ROC government was established in Taipei at the end of China’s civil war in 1949 when the Communists established the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. The government in Beijing claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, with no right to state-to-state ties, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its goals.

Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, noted that China had long been cultivating closer relationships with countries in Central America.

“Castro backed off on the idea of dropping Taiwan after she took office. In that sense, this decision is surprising. But maybe it shouldn’t be,” Freeman said in an email. “For years, China has been expanding its footprint in Central America, while U.S. administrations – Republican and Democrat – have worked intensively with governments in the region on migration, but only sporadically on other issues. Now, the bill is coming due for the lack of high-level attention.”

The manoeuvring for influence is taking place amid rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei, and a deterioration in the relationship between the US and China.

As Pacific nations have peeled away from Taiwan, and after the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, the US has stepped up engagement in the region.

US President Joe Biden last year hosted Pacific leaders at the White House for what was billed as an unprecedented summit that ended with generous US pledges of assistance and a commitment to tackling climate change — an existential issue for many Pacific states. Last month, the US reopened its embassy in Solomon Islands, which had been closed in 1993.

China’s interest in the region has also raised concern in nearby Australia and New Zealand, as well as within Pacific nations.

Last week, the outgoing leader of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), one of the world’s tiniest countries, accused China of bribing officials and making “direct threats” against his personal safety in relation to its efforts to secure control of Taiwan.

Panuelo, who will leave office in May, said China was trying to interfere in the FSM to ensure that the country would align with Beijing, or remain neutral, in the event of a war over Taiwan.

The FSM, which is home to fewer than 115,000 people and located about 2,900km (1,800 miles) northeast of Australia, is independent but receives financial assistance and defence guarantees from the US under a so-called compact of free association.

Monuments to “aggressors” may need to be taken down as “offensive,” new Welsh government guidance reportedly states

UK monuments erected to celebrate “older white men” can be taken down or relocated in order not to offend the public, according to new Welsh government guidance cited by the Telegraph on Saturday. The newspaper said the document is expected to be finalized this month.

The guidance claims monuments “can be offensive to people today who see them in a different light,” including as “aggressors who conquered peoples to expand the British Empire.”

The document reportedly argues that existing memorials project the “perception that the achievements that society considers noteworthy are those of powerful, older, able-bodied white men.”

According to the Telegraph, the statues of general Arthur Wellesley and admiral Horatio Nelson, hailed for their victories against Napoleon, could fall under this rubric. Both commanders have been accused by activists in the past of enabling colonialism and slavery.

The guidance advises authorities and other public institutions to “take action” to set “the right historical narrative,” according to the newspaper.

The options laid out include the destruction and relocation of “offensive and unwanted items.” Officials are also recommended to “discretely box monuments or enclose them creatively in new artworks,” as well as removing the names of streets and buildings that the public finds inappropriate.

Multiple statues have been toppled or defaced in Britain since 2020, when anti-racism protests and riots broke out in the US and other Western countries. The outrage was initially sparked by the killing of an African American man named George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.

Activists have insisted that some monuments glorify shameful parts of British history. In 2020, they tore down the statue of merchant, politician, and slave-trader Edward Colston in Bristol. The monument to Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square was vandalized the same year during a Black Lives Matter protest.

The attacks on memorials prompted backlash from some government officials. Robert Jenrick, then the communities secretary, described the activists in 2021 as “a baying mob” trying to “edit or censor the past.”

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Beijing, Mar 10 (Prensa Latina) The National People's Congress (Parliament) of China unanimously re-elected President Xi Jinping for another term and also appointed its new leaders and other senior State officials.

The almost three thousand deputies present at the annual session of the Congress ratified Xi Jinping at the head of the Central Military Commission.

Xi has served in those two posts for 10 years and has also been the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2012.

Han Zheng was elected Vice President, while Zhao Leji was appointed chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, along with another 14 vice presidents of the Committee.

After the voting, the President and the other officials swore loyalty to the Chinese constitution.

The new Prime Minister will also be appointed this weekend from among a number of members of CCP Politburo Standing Committee.

Since last weekend, the session in the National Assembly has been running parallel to that of the National People’s Congress to define China’s short- and mid-term socioeconomic course.

Both bodies are also examining initiatives to solve different problems, such as the challenges resulting from low birth rates and population aging.

One in five households reported skipping meals or not eating for a whole day in January, according to the Food Foundation

The number of children afflicted by food poverty in the UK nearly doubled in January from a year ago, The Guardian has reported, citing a survey by the think tank Food Foundation.

According to the findings, 22% of households polled reported either skipping meals or not eating for a whole day last month. In January 2022, the figure stood at only 12%. The overall number of British children suffering from a lack of food has now reached almost 4 million, data showed.

The alarming trend comes as the country suffers from record-high food inflation, spurred by soaring energy costs. The indicator now stands at 17.1%, according to the latest figures released by market researcher Kantar earlier this week, with milk, eggs, and margarine showing the fastest price growth. The cost-of-living crisis is further exacerbated by the government’s recent decision to cut back support for household energy bills.

The public is now urging the British authorities to expand free school meals across the country. A separate survey by the Food Foundation found that 80% of respondents were in favor of making all British children eligible for free meals in school. Currently, only households with an annual income under £7,400 qualify for free meals, leaving some 800,000 children living in poverty but ineligible for the benefit, according to Child Poverty Action Group.

“By extending free school meals to more children in England in the next budget, the government could deliver a policy change that is popular with voters, targeted and timely, and truly delivers on levelling up,” Anna Taylor, the CEO of Food Foundation, said, commenting on the findings.

READ MORE: Food costs in Britain jump 17%

According to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, free school meals could save families about £440 per child annually. Earlier this month, he announced that London schools would offer free meals to all primary school pupils for a year starting in September.

URUMQI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Per capita net income of populations lifted out of poverty in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region increased rapidly last year, up 12.1 percent to nearly 15,000 yuan (about 2,156 U.S. dollars), the information office of the regional government said.

The number of people lifted out of poverty with per capita net income of less than 10,000 yuan dropped by 72.9 percent from 950,000 at the end of 2021 to 257,100 at the end of 2022.

The region has been making efforts to increase income for those who have escaped poverty, such as promoting employment.

Last year, the region supported 35 counties, which have been lifted out of poverty, in fostering competitive industries in light of local conditions.

This year, Xinjiang will focus on building industrial clusters for grain, oil, cotton, textile and clothing, green organic fruits and vegetables, and high-quality livestock products; strengthen economic exchange and cooperation between areas that have escaped poverty in Xinjiang and other provincial-level regions; and foster new growth areas in rural areas.

LHASA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- More trees and expanding grasslands have covered southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region over the years, thanks to central and local government's afforestation efforts, official figures showed.

As a pilot zone for high-altitude tree planting projects, the regional capital Lhasa has carried out various scientific research efforts since 2012.

Over the past decade, more than 30 species suitable for planting on the plateau have been screened and planted, according to Hu Zhiguang, deputy director of the regional forestry and grassland bureau.

In 2021, the largest afforestation project in Tibet was launched. According to the plan, the project is expected to complete afforestation of about 2.07 million mu (137,800 hectares) by 2030.

After completion of the project, the annual increase of newly-added water storage will reach 49.8 million tonnes, carbon sequestration 229,100 tonnes, and oxygen release 193,000 tonnes, respectively, which will create an annual ecological value of over 1.48 billion yuan (about 215.4 million U.S. dollars).

With an average altitude of 4,500 meters, Nagqu on the northern Tibetan plateau was once the only city in China without trees. Following nearly 20 years of exploration, scattered trees have survived and are growing in the yards of some government departments and next to some roads.

The central government has since 2012 invested an accumulated 12.7 billion yuan in building an ecological security barrier in Tibet, according to Shui Yanping, deputy director of the regional department of ecology and environment, adding that the forest coverage rate increased to 12.31 percent, while the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland reached 47.14 percent.

Statistics show that in 2022, Tibet completed afforestation of some 1.18 million mu and restored over 4.37 million mu of degraded grassland, with 50 percent of its land area classified under ecological protection.

Beijing has expressed national-security concerns related to the SpaceX network

Chinese researchers are preparing to launch close to 13,000 satellites into a low-earth orbit, in a move which would dwarf – and potentially monitor – Elon Musk’s SpaceX ‘Starlink’ network, which first launched in 2019 and provides satellite internet access to 50 countries.

The project, which is codenamed ‘GW’ and is being led by associate professor Xu Can of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Space Engineering University in Beijing, will see 12,992 satellites operated by the China Satellite Network Group Co launched into orbit, and is designed to improve communications efficiency.

The launch schedule remains unknown but the team led by Xu said that they plan to deploy them “before the completion of Starlink.” They added that this would “ensure that our country has a place in low orbit and prevent the Starlink constellation from excessively pre-empting low-orbit resources.”

The projected number of ‘GW’ satellites would surpass Starlink’s current total of around 3,500. SpaceX plans to have 12,000 devices in its constellation of satellites by 2027, with that figure eventually rising to 42,000.

Xu’s team elaborated that they would place their satellites into “orbits where the Starlink constellation has not yet reached” and that they would “gain opportunities and advantages at other orbital altitudes, and even suppress Starlink.”

The ‘GW’ network could also be equipped with technology to provide “long-term surveillance of Starlink satellites,” the team of researchers added.

Xu and his team also suggested that the Chinese government could form an anti-Starlink coalition with various other governments which would “demand that SpaceX publish the precise orbiting data of Starlink satellites.”

Chinese military figures have previously expressed concern at the national security implications posed by SpaceX’s satellites, and called for the development of “hard kill” technology “to destroy the constellation’s operating system” should it be necessary.

China’s efforts to counter Starlink come amid growing concerns about the potential military applications of the global satellite network. The technology has been used to bolster communications by Ukrainian military forces throughout its conflict with Russia – though SpaceX took steps earlier this month to restrict its use in controlling military drones in the country.

The country has substantially increased its renewable capacities

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China has begun construction of a large-scale green hydrogen project that will use solar and wind power in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to Sinopec Group, the country’s biggest oil refiner.

The company expects the project, its second green hydrogen enterprise, to produce 30,000 tons of green hydrogen and 240,000 tons of green oxygen annually.

According to Xu Zhendong, executive director of the Inner Mongolia branch of Sinopec Star Petroleum, the green hydrogen and green oxygen produced there will be transported via pipelines to a pilot coal deep-processing project to replace part of what is produced using the existing coal-to-hydrogen method.

Inner Mongolia is currently one of China’s biggest coal-mining regions but is set to become a renewable energy hub. Although China still relies heavily on its large coal industry, it is hoping to make a gradual transition to renewable alternatives and achieve decarbonization over the coming decades. The country is planning to become carbon neutral by 2060 following a peak in carbon emissions in 2030.

Hydrogen is considered green since it is produced from renewables, such as solar and wind sources, and does not result in carbon dioxide emissions.

After becoming fully operational, the project is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by some 1.43 million tons. That is equivalent to planting around 825,000 trees, according to Xu.

China is the world’s largest producer of hydrogen, though most of it is currently produced from coal. The country’s annual output is expected to reach up to 200,000 tons of hydrogen – thanks to renewables – in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to two million tons by 2025.

Builders of Fangchenggang-Dongxing railway, an important railway linking China and Vietnam, said about 90 percent of the construction of the railway has been completed. They expected it to be fully completed before the end of the year.

No need to name your country or the party or any personal information that would give away your location.

It wouldn't let me upload more than one picture, but the link has everything!

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This aerial photo taken on Feb. 21, 2023 shows the Fuzhou South Railway Station under construction in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. The 277-km railway runs along southeast China's coastline and crosses over three major bays on gigantic bridges. It's the country's first sea-crossing high-speed railway. With a designed speed of 350 km per hour and eight stations along the route, it is expected to slash the travel time between the two cities to just one hour. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani, arrested from Karachi in 2002, are the latest inmates to be released from US custody.

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Two Pakistani brothers held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay military prison for two decades have been freed by US officials and have returned home, officials said.

Abdul, 55, and Mohammed Rabbani, 53, will be reunited with their families after a formal questioning by Pakistani authorities, security officials and a Pakistani senator said on Friday.

The two brothers arrived at an airport in the capital, Islamabad, on Friday. Pakistani Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, the chairman of the human rights committee in the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament, tweeted that the two brothers had reached Islamabad airport.

Khan said the men were “innocently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for 21 years”.

“There was no trial, no court proceedings, no charges against them. Congratulations on their release. Thank you Senate of Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.

Khan later told The Associated Press that the brothers were being sent to Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, where they lived with their families. He said he hoped the men will be reunited with their families soon.

They were the latest inmates to be released from US custody as the country moves towards emptying and shutting down the prison.

The George W Bush administration set it up at a naval base in Cuba for suspects rounded up after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.

The releases come months after a 75-year-old Pakistani, Saifullah Paracha, was freed from the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The two brothers were originally transferred to US custody after Pakistani officials arrested them in their home city of Karachi in 2002. US officials accused the two of helping al-Qaeda members with housing and other lower-level logistical support.

The brothers alleged torture while in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo. US military records describe the two as providing little intelligence of value or recanting statements made during interrogations on the grounds they were obtained by physical abuse.

The US military announced their repatriation in a statement. It gave no immediate information on any conditions set by Pakistan regarding their return there.

“The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the defence department said.

On Friday, a close family friend of the two brothers told the AP that Pakistani authorities had formally informed the brothers’ family about the release and their return to Pakistan.

The family friend, who is Pakistani and refused to be identified for security reasons, said the younger Rabbani learned painting during his detention at Guantanamo Bay, and that he was expected to bring with him some of those paintings.

He said Ahmed Rabbani frequently went on hunger strikes and prison officials fed him through a tube. He said the man remained on the nutritional supplements.

Guantanamo at its peak in 2003 held about 600 people whom the US considered “terrorists”. Supporters of using the detention facility for such figures contend it prevented attacks.

But critics say the military detention and courts subverted human rights and constitutional rights, and undermined US standing abroad.

Thirty-two detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, including 18 eligible for transfer if stable third-party countries can be found to take them, the Pentagon said.

Many are from Yemen, a country considered too plagued with war and armed groups, and too devoid of services for freed Yemeni prisoners to be sent there.

Nine of the inmates are defendants in slow-moving military-run tribunals. Two others have been convicted.

Equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell and a low-pressure hydrogen storage device, the only waste produced by this environmentally friendly bicycle is water! Join us at the Chinese enterprise behind this exciting prototype to learn more.

NATO nations have reportedly looked to some ex-Warsaw Pact states to build USSR-standard munitions for Ukraine

The US and its NATO allies have been scouring behind the former Iron Curtain – searching in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries – to find factories that can build ammunition for Ukraine’s Soviet-standard weapons, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Even as they send billions of dollars’ worth of modern weaponry to Kiev, Western bloc governments can’t build the Soviet-type artillery shells and other munitions on which Ukraine’s military still relies, the newspaper said. As a result, they have turned to Bulgaria and other countries that were formerly in the “Soviet orbit” to help produce the weaponry that Ukraine needs to battle Russian forces.

The search has required secrecy to avoid “political fallout and Russian retaliation” because, as in the case of Bulgaria, the local populations are largely pro-Russian, the Times said. Revelations last summer that Sofia was supplying weapons to Ukraine, despite strong opposition, ignited political uproar.

The report cited the addition of a new production line at a plant in Kostenets, Bulgaria, that will soon resume making 122-millimeter artillery shells for the first time since 1988. Another state-run Bulgarian arms factory, located in the small town of Sopot, will also be ramping up output to supply Ukrainian forces.

Brokers with US-supplied cash are also looking to plants in Serbia, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina as possible suppliers of Soviet-type shells, according to the report. Luxembourg has tapped an arms maker in the Czech Republic to procure arms for Ukraine.

The scramble for Soviet weapons comes amid struggles by NATO members to produce ammunition fast enough to replace the shells that are being fired off each day in Ukraine. Kiev is burning through weaponry at a rate “many times higher” than its Western allies can produce it, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned earlier this month.

The UK government has formed a secret task force to find suppliers of Soviet-type weapons for Ukraine. Both the US and the UK have funded deals using brokers to help former Eastern Bloc manufacturers and their governments hide their involvement in the conflict, the Times said. In one case, the British paid a Romanian broker to buy artillery shells from a Pakistani arms maker. As it turned out, the Pakistani supplier failed to deliver the munitions.

Up to 200 soldiers will reportedly head to the island to train its military against a hypothetical “Chinese invasion”

Washington is planning to send between 100 and 200 troops to Taiwan “in the coming months,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing anonymous officials. The personnel will be tasked with training the Taiwanese military against what was described as a “rising threat from China.”

The deployment will more than quadruple the US military presence on the island, according to the Journal. According to the Pentagon’s Defense Manpower Data Center, there were 23 American soldiers in Taiwan as of autumn 2022.

These Americans have been acting as advisers and trainers for the US weapons and equipment sent to Taipei. The new troops will also train the Taiwanese in tactics “to protect against a potential Chinese offensive,” according to unnamed US officials.

There were also Taiwanese troops in the US, with “a contingent” training alongside the Michigan National Guard in the north of that state, the Journal reported. When reached for comment, the Pentagon said only that the US “commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid.”

“We don’t have a comment on specific operations, engagements, or training, but I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Journal.

The expanded training is intended to “thwart a possible invasion by China,” and has been planned for months, long before this month’s incident with the Chinese “spy balloon,” officials who spoke to the Journal said. They also don’t believe it amounts to “anywhere close to a tipping point” for Beijing.

“One of the difficult things to determine is what really is objectionable to China,” one official said.

China has repeatedly warned the US against arming Taiwan and warned Washington to abide by the treaties and agreements governing their relationship. The US used to recognize Taipei as the “Republic of China” but switched that recognition to Beijing in 1978, adopting a One-China policy.

Taiwan has been a point of contention between China and the US since 1949, when the Communists won the civil war against the Kuomintang. The Americans helped evacuate the defeated nationalists to the island, which was liberated in 1945 from 50 years of Japanese rule.

The People’s Republic of China has pointed to Taiwan’s status as Chinese territory for over 200 years before it was ceded to Japan as a war trophy in 1895. Beijing seeks to reunite what it calls a renegade island with the mainland, preferably by peaceful means.