Over 45,000 Ethiopian Refugees Seek Shelter in Sudan Amid Tigray Conflict

More than 45,000 people have fled Ethiopia since the start of the armed conflict in the Tigray region, Alsir Khaled, head of Sudan's refugee agency in the eastern border town of Kassala, told Sputnik.

In November, an armed conflict started between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) after the government accused Tigray forces of conducting an attack on a military base in the region.

"The number of Ethiopian refugees [in Sudan] who are fleeing the war in the Tigray area in the north of Ethiopia has surpassed 45,000. At the same time, local issues [relating to housing refugees] continue because of humanitarian organizations’ slow work," Khaled said.

​On Sunday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that TPLF rebels had three days to "surrender peacefully" and called on civilians in the capital of the Tigray region, Mekelle (Mekele), to stand in solidarity with government forces.

Ethiopia: @UN & partners remain extremely concerned about the safety of civilians in the Tigray region & call on all parties to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians. https://t.co/0l2HfrdGVb pic.twitter.com/TbEaybi7oS

— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) November 23, 2020

Ethiopia is a mosaic of different ethnic tribes - Amhara, Oromo, Tigrayan, Sidama, Gurage, Wolayta and Somali. Meles Zenawi and the Tigrayan elite ruled the country until they began to lose power after his death in 2012.

https://sputniknews.com/africa/202011241081255754-over-45000-ethiopian-refugees-seek-shelter-in-sudan-amid-tigray-conflict/

Cooperate With China Or World War 3: Kissinger

"I would think we need first of all a dialogue with the Chinese leadership in which we are defining what we're attempting to prevent and in which the two leaders agree that whatever other conflicts they have they will not resort to military conflict," Henry Kissinger told Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait on November 16 at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

"Unless there is some basis for some cooperative action, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I."

Of course no one wants war of any type with China, but in a little over 14 minutes Kissinger managed to totally misinterpret Chinese history, support Beijing's most important foreign policy goal, and give deeply misguided advice to Joe Biden. Kissinger has evidently learned nothing from years of dangerous Chinese behavior, which is partly the result of his policy formulations.

We start with history, because Kissinger was once an accomplished historian and his incorrect opinions on China today appear to flow from his unsupportable views of the Chinese past. He makes the case that Americans cannot understand Beijing's insecurity.

"Americans have had a history of relatively uninterrupted success," he noted.

"The Chinese have had a very long history of repeated crises. America has had the good fortune of being free of immediate dangers. Chinese have usually been surrounded by countries that have had designs on their unity."

Even if his comments were true, no country now threatens China. China, in fact, has not faced any credible external threat to its unity for more than seven decades. The Communist Party dwells on history, such as the so-called "Century of Humiliation," the subject of ruler Xi Jinping's National Day speech last October, because that telling of history suits the needs of today's insecure regime.

China's troubled past, in short, is an excuse. What, after all, is it in history that justifies present-day Chinese aggression against India, Bhutan and Nepal, or its designs on Tajikistan, the Philippines and Malaysia?

Moreover, what justification is there for the Communist Party's declaration of a "people's war" on the United States in May of last year?

China is aggressive and militant at this moment because of the nature of its communist regime, which is quickly driving the country back to one-man rule and totalitarianism. Xi Jinping, the one man in China's system, is now propagating the audacious concept of tianxia, that "all under heaven" owe allegiance to Beijing.

There are, unfortunately, some points in history when dialogue makes matters worse because hardline leaders perceive others' desire to talk as a sign of weakness.

In any event, dialogue assumes that Chinese leaders can compromise, which at this point is a dubious proposition. For instance, Beijing last compromised a territorial claim in 2011 — with Tajikistan, when it took Tajik territory — but now is trying to reopen the settlement to grab even more. Since then, Beijing has added new claims — to the South China Sea — and has laid the groundwork for additional ones, especially over Japan's Ryukyu chain.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16785/china-kissinger-war

Philly Faces New Lawsuit After Shutting Down Gun-Carry Permit Process

Philadelphia is facing a new lawsuit over its decision to completely shutter its gun-carry permit process over COVID-19 concerns.

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a case in federal court accusing Philadelphia of infringing on residents' Second Amendment rights on Friday after the city closed its permit process for at least three weeks. The gun-rights group requested a temporary restraining order Monday that would require the city to open its process back up and provide remote application options to residents, but it was denied. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 30.

"We're hoping to have the court rule that the shutdown of the Gun Permit Unit amounts to a total destruction of individuals' right to bear arms outside of the home," Adam Kraut, director of legal strategy for FPC, told the Washington Free Beacon.

The shutdown comes even as other permitting offices in the city remain open. The three driver and photo license centers in Philadelphia have social distancing requirements but are open to the public, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's website.

The Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a message on the department's Gun Permit Unit website said the shutdown was due to "several positive COVID-19 cases and the need to quarantine as advised by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health." The message added that all appointments would be canceled through at least Dec. 7, 2020, as the permitting facility is cleaned.

Kraut said the suit doesn't question mitigation efforts against COVID-19, but rather PPD's decision to completely suspend permitting instead of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face application process. He pointed to other Pennsylvania counties like Berks and Schuylkill, which accept gun-carry permit applications online.

"There is a mechanism that they could set up … in which they receive the applications, they process them, and then they either call the person down in person or … send them [a certification] via mail," Kraut said. "They could certainly accept applications by mail. They could accept applications by common carrier. They could even set up a locked drop box for people to physically drop off an application. There's a whole bunch of alternatives that exist and there's no indication that they've even considered them."

https://freebeacon.com/politics/philly-faces-new-lawsuit-after-shutting-down-gun-carry-permit-process/