Ahhhhhhhh the sweet memories cholos
EU, Vietnam to become brothers in arms
Two sides will sign a new defense agreement on August 5, opening the way for stronger strategic cooperation including in the South China Sea
On August 5, the European Union’s (EU) chief diplomat Federica Mogherini will sign a new defense agreement with Vietnam, the first such security deal Brussels will have with a Southeast Asian nation.
It is the latest indication that the EU is trying to forge a closer defense relationship with the region and Vietnam in particular, which is at the heart of disputes with China in the South China Sea.
After taking part in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum and an EU-ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference in Bangkok between August 1 and 2, Mogherini will head to Hanoi to sign “an agreement on Vietnam’s participation in our European military and civilian missions”, she told regional media earlier this week.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/eu-vietnam-to-become-brothers-in-arms/
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PLA video warning for Hong Kong
Garrison posts clip about cracking down on protesters and terrorists after weeks of chaos on streets
The People’s Liberation Army has had a busy summer in Hong Kong, with two months of protests on the city’s streets, which have frequently been turned into semi-war zones because of running battles between protesters and police.
The 6,000-strong PLA garrison is never insulated from the heat of politics, and the groundswell against China’s extradition bill has drawn global coverage to Beijing’s responses in the former British colony.
First, there was a naval drill staged in Victoria Harbor, then the garrison commander received a deputy defense secretary from the US. And then an exercise was staged at a military camp in Shenzhen to mock quelling mayhem and street battles.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/pla-in-hk-releases-warning-video-but-not-soldiers/
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA –
Reserve U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, joined forces with their active duty counterparts to support Integrated Training Exercise 5-19, at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., July 25- Aug. 22, 2019.
ITX is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force integration exercise that allows units from different elements of a MAGTF to train together to maintain mission readiness and prepare for future deployments. A MAGTF is a combined, scalable and self-contained unit made up of four elements: ground combat, aviation combat, logistics combat and command.
As part of Marine Forces Reserve, 1/25 is headquartered in Fort Devens, Mass. and is comprised of Marines from all over the Northeastern area of the country. Reserve Marines have regularly operated alongside the active component since World War I. As a reserve unit, 1/25 is to augment and reinforce active Marine forces in time of war, national emergency or contingency operations, provide personnel and operational tempo relief for the active forces in peacetime, and provide service to the community.
https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/1922899/reserve-marines-train-at-itx-5-19-in-preparation-of-deployment-to-okinawa-japan
UK says no to tanker swap with Tehran, insists Iranian vessel was seized legally
FILE PHOTO: A Panama flag flies on the stern of the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 as it sits anchored after it was seized earlier this month by British Royal Marines in the Strait of Gibraltar July 20, 2019. © Reuters / Jon Nazca
The British government has dismissed the possibility of exchanging an Iranian tanker it detained near Gibraltar for a British-flagged tanker later seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf.
“We are not going to barter: if people or nations have detained UK-flagged [ships] illegally then the rule of law and rule of international law must be upheld,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday.
He insisted that in contrast to Tehran’s maritime actions, the UK had been on firm legal ground when it seized the Iranian tanker.
British Marines seized the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 near Gibraltar on July 4, claiming it was transporting oil to Syria, in violation of EU sanctions. Tehran responded to the move in tit-for-tat fashion, detaining a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz two weeks later. Iran claimed that the vessel, the Stena Impero, had been “violating international maritime rules.”
https://www.rt.com/news/465568-iran-oil-tanker-uk-swap-tensions/
Dozens killed in attacks on security forces in Yemen’s Aden
Separate attacks by Houthi rebels and unknown assailants targeted security forces on Thursday in Yemen’s Aden, the seat of the country’s Saudi-backed government, killing at least 49 people, according to a health ministry official.
The Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a military camp in which more than 30 people were killed, according to medical and security sources.
A Reuters witness saw nine bodies on the ground at the camp belonging to the Yemeni Security Belt forces backed by the United Arab Emirates, which is a member of the Saudi-led military coalition battling the Houthis.
The attack killed at least 32 people, including a commander, a medical and a security source told Reuters.
Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed and Saudi Arabia's envoy to Yemen, in separate tweets, accused Iran of being behind the attack claimed by the Houthis.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190801-yemen-aden-two-deadly-attacks-police-jihadists-shiite
EU members at odds over IMF chief to replace Lagarde
EU members have yet to reach a consensus on a candidate to replace Christine Lagarde as head of the International Monetary Fund, missing a July deadline they set themselves to fill the job, the French finance ministry said Thursday.
"At this stage, although some candidates' names gather more support than others, there is not yet a full consensus around one name," the ministry, which is spearheading efforts to find a replacement for France's Lagarde, told reporters in a message.
The post of IMF managing director goes to a European by convention while an American heads the World Bank.
The post became vacant after Lagarde was tapped by EU leaders to head the European Central Bank.
Several names, including Spain's Finance Minister Nadia Calvino and former Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Bank of England governor Mark Carney, have been floated as possible successors.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190801-eu-members-consensus-imf-chief-replace-lagarde
Global central banks boost gold reserves by record $15.7 billion in shift away from US dollar
Official global gold reserves continued to grow at a rapid pace this year, with demand for the precious metal reaching 1,123 tons in the second quarter of 2019.
A report released by World Gold Council (WGC) on Thursday showed that central banks purchased a record $15.7 billion (374 tons) of gold in the first six months of the year. That was the largest acquisition of gold recorded by WGC in its 19-year quarterly data releases.
The record gold-buying was led by Russia, China and Poland, the report said, as many countries seek to diversify reserves away from the US dollar.
https://www.rt.com/business/465557-central-banks-gold-purchasing-record/
IRS Complaint Filed Against Wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today filed a Complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS), a 501(c)(3) organization headed by Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, wife to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).
Mrs. Cummings is currently Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and is a former candidate for Governor. Rep. Cummings is Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The Complaint describes a score of apparent Internal Revenue Code violations, including prohibited private benefit and inurement of the Cummings. CGPS has received millions in grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and, in late 2017, was granted a million-dollar contract from the General Services Administration. The funds were purportedly provided to fight childhood obesity. The Complaint asks the IRS to investigate whether “its organizers are getting fat off the grants.”
https://nlpc.org/2019/05/20/irs-complaint-filed-against-wife-of-rep-elijah-cummings-d-md/
The U.S.-Guatemala Safe Third Country Deal: Where's the Beef?
The country of Guatemala has inked an "asylum deal" with the United States to permit safe third country processing for asylum seekers passing through its borders en route to our country. At least, it has according to President Trump, and certainly the Guatemalan foreign minister and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acting secretary Kevin McAleenan signed some document in the president's presence.
Such a deal would in effect mean that other nationals, such as Salvadorans and Hondurans, could be returned to Guatemala in order to pursue their claims to asylum, instead of being allowed to remain in the U.S. for the duration of the process, which due to immigration court backlogs takes years. That's for the simple reason that, geographically for these and other Central Americans, Guatemala is the major choke point you must cross before entering Mexico enroute north; although it's worth noting that Belize (formerly British Honduras) might become a viable workaround to avoid the net of this safe third country agreement for determined migrants.
The immigration court backlog in asylum cases acts as a lure to mass illegal immigration since, even if the claim is ultimately denied (or, as often as not, abandoned) it buys the applicant several years of residing here, replete with work authorization and numerous additional benefits, including free education for minor children and billions of dollars in free health care which, although ostensibly off-limits to illegal aliens, is a reality since neither emergency services nor county health centers send such people away when the need exists.
https://cis.org/Cadman/USGuatemala-Safe-Third-Country-Deal-Wheres-Beef
Afghan migrant convicted of three sexual assaults will remain in France
Despite having been convicted of sexually assaulting three people, including a 14-year-old girl, an 18-year-old migrant from Afghanistan will not be deported from France.
According to a report by La Republique de Seine et Marne, the Criminal Court of Fontainebleau found the Afghan migrant guilty of the sexual assault earlier this week after he had been arrested a few days earlier for sex attacks which occurred over a four-day time span during June.
The disturbing attacks occurred between the 16th and 19th of June in the park of Château de Fontainebleau.
The Afghan reportedly dashed toward the women and demanded sexual favors while groping them sexually.
Accounts of the migrant’s sexual assault of the 14-year-old girl are especially disturbing. The Afghan is reported to have touched her sex organs and other parts of her body with his mouth after he had jumped on her and restrained her.
After being assaulted, each one of Afghan’s victims fled the park and contacted police.
French police were able to catch up with the sexual predator after placing the park under surveillance. Despite vehemently denying the disgusting crimes, two of the Afghan’s victims were able to identify him as the attacker.
Upon being handed a guilty verdict by a French court, the migrant was sentenced to a measly one year in prison with no deportation order, despite the prosecuting attorney’s request have him imprisoned for two years in prison followed by a five-year entry ban to France.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/08/afghan-migrant-convicted-of-three-sexual-assaults-will-remain-in-france/
Hacking Cars Could Freeze Traffic In Major Cities
If self-driving vehicles are exposed to the Internet, which they are, does anyone really think that they cannot be hacked en mass and turned into objects of total chaos in cities? ⁃ TN Editor
A hack that affects a small number of internet-connected cars could completely gridlock Manhattan, according to a study from researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Multiscale Systems, Inc. The research was published in the journal Physical Review E.
The paper found that randomly stalling 20% of cars during rush hour would stop traffic in Manhattan. Even a hack that affects 10% of cars at rush hour would create enough blockages to stop emergency vehicles from getting through traffic.
The research suggests cities “split up the digital network influencing the cars to make it impossible to access too many cars through one network.”
Cybersecurity experts have warned that connected cars can be targets for hackers, who could stall or take control of a vehicle, or could compromise connected stoplights.
This study, said lead author Peter Yunker, was designed to take a broader look at what would happen if a larger number of cars were struck by the same hack and were stopped either by being shut down or by getting into an accident.
“When a large-scale hack occurs on an actual grid of roads, there might be consequences that you wouldn’t predict from an isolated car that’s been stopped or is out of control,” Yunker, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics, told Smart Cities Dive.
https://www.technocracy.news/hacking-cars-could-freeze-traffic-in-major-cities/