tybs
>been lazy the last two weekends
>>77516 pb
SLOT74 USAFSOC C-32B departed Salt Lake City after an overnight es and looks like it is heading to Eglin AFB-it's home base.
>>77705 pb
SAM987 USAF G5 continues west from it's JBA departure
>>77542 pb
TITAN25 USAF E-4B Nightwatch west from JBA (this AC used by Sec. of Defense for Alaska, Singapore, Hanoi and Manila stops this last week)
This also may still have the Sec. of Defense on board this flight as TITAN25 is used when they are on it.
Heading to Lincoln Muni airport, NE
>>77716 pb
SPAR80 USAF G5 sw after Bangor ME ground stop and refuel-prolly heading to MacDill AFB
locked
think I've logged in less than 5x so far.
Kenya Resumes China Debt Repayment With $761 Million Remittance
Kenya has resumed servicing loans owed to China after Beijing’s six-month debt-repayment suspension expired in June, piling pressure on the exchequer.
The government began 2021-22 remittances, with the first batch to the Export–Import Bank of China amounting to 82.7 billion shillings ($761 million), according to Kenya’s Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o. Repayments are for debt taken for projects, including a railroad between Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and the port city of Mombasa, Nyakang’o said in emailed responses to questions. China postponed the repayments in January, helping the East African nation temporarily retain 27 billion shillings that was due for six months ending June 30. Renewing the payments comes as a blow to Kenya, which asked for an extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative -- under which the World Bank and International Monetary Fund urged the Group of 20 leading economies to help countries concentrate their resources on fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Kenya’s debt-servicing costs are poised to surge 35% to a record 1.17 trillion shillings in the year through June 2022, according to the parliamentary budget office. That exceeds the administration’s 669 billion shillings budget for development projects during the period. China, which accounts for about one third of Kenya’s 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation’s biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank. Kenya plans to spend a total of 117.7 billion shillings on Chinese debt in the period, of which about 24.7 billion shillings is in interest payments and almost 93 billion shillings in redemptions, according to budget documents.
The swelling debt burden with the budget deficit projected at 7.5% of gross domestic product this fiscal year partly reflects a pile of repayments deferred from the previous period by DSSI creditors, according the lawmakers’ budget office. The IMF estimates Kenya would receive total debt relief of $361 million from the DSSI in the six months through December, if the arrangement is extended. The reprieve for January through June was $350 million, nearly half the target of $680 million. The Paris Club of creditors is yet to decide on Kenya’s request to extend the relief arrangement. The Chinese embassy in Nairobi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kenya’s request to further postpone payments.
“Sovereign lenders have the choice of deciding whether or not to grant DSSI,” National Treasury Principal Secretary Julius Muia said. He confirmed that “Kenya has resumed servicing interest and principal” on Chinese debt.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/kenya-resumes-china-debt-repayment-with-761-million-remittance-1.1635207
chek't
Top U.S. diplomat to court Southeast Asia in virtual meetings
Engagement of 10 ASEAN foreign ministers signals renewed commitment to region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with Southeast Asian officials every day next week, a senior state department official said on Saturday, as Washington seeks to show the region it’s a U.S. priority while also addressing the crisis in Myanmar.
The top U.S. diplomat will attend virtual meetings for five consecutive days, including annual meetings of the 10 foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other nations and separate meetings of the Lower Mekong subregion countries Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. "I think it's a clear demonstration of our commitment to the region," said the official, who briefed Reuters on condition of anonymity. In recent years top U.S. officials have not always attended ASEAN meetings and have sometimes sent more junior officials to the region's summits. The virtual meetings come after the Biden administration in its early days was seen as paying little attention to the region of more than 600 million people, which is often overshadowed by neighboring economic giant China, which the administration sees as its major foreign policy challenge.
But that has been partly addressed by recent visits to the region. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand in May and June, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Vietnam and the Philippines this week, and Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit Singapore and Vietnam >>77522 pb . "That steady flow of high-level engagement is going to pay dividends. It's noticed," the official said, adding that countries in the region "notice when we don't show up and that's when you start hearing some complaining maybe about not taking them seriously or taking them for granted." The official said that donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the region had been a "game changer in terms of how our image is perceived."
On Sunday, the United States shipped 3 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam and it has sent doses to other Southeast Asian countries too, but an agreement it reached in March with Japan and Australia and India to provide a billion doses to the region stalled due to an Indian export ban By mid-next week the United States will have donated 23 million doses to countries in the region, which is experiencing a surge of the coronavirus with vaccination rates well below countries in the West, the official said. But none of those doses have gone to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where military generals staged a coup on Feb. 1 and detained elected leaders including Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking sanctions from Washington and other Western capitals. The meetings next week will see Blinken in the same virtual meetings as representatives of Myanmar’s military government, but the official said rather than bestowing legitimacy on those officials, this was an opportunity to get messages to the military government.
"We're not prepared to walk away from ASEAN because of the bad behavior of a group of generals in Burma," the official said, adding that U.S. officials were also engaging with the National Unity Government that opposes the military government there.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Top-U.S.-diplomat-to-court-Southeast-Asia-in-virtual-meetings
XA987/SAM987 USAF G5 had a ground stop at Sonoma County Airport, CA for refuel and sw to Hawaii