Miscellaneous News

[taxiya]

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Brazilian President Lula to visit China


Lula visiting China for almost a week, I'm guessing he will sign lots of agreements, including BRI agreements.

I am seeing something is brewing. In short period of time, leaders of Belarus, Iran, SA, China have met and soon Russia and Brazil while Biden begs for an audience but got no response. In the mean time, Yellen begs China to buy their trash but got rejected, US increase interest rate while China just reduced RRR (Required Reserve Ratio).

 

[baykalov]

The US empire suddenly get very, very interested in the human rights violations of Saudi Arabia.

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WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - Democratic and Republican U.S. senators introduced a resolution on Wednesday that could force President Joe Biden's administration to prepare a report on Saudi Arabia's human rights record and possibly lead to a reassessment of U.S. security assistance for the kingdom.

Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Mike Lee introduced the resolution under a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act that allows Congress to vote to request information on a particular country's human rights practices.

That was particularly the case with Riyadh's approval of the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production last year – a move which directly defied the Biden administration's request to increase production and lower market prices. Saudi Arabia was subsequently accused of aiding Russia in its war on Ukraine, resulting in calls in the US to freeze cooperation with the Kingdom and halt most arms sales.

Speaking to reporters today, Murphy said that "When we cozy up to these brutal dictators, who engage in some of the most brazen, brutal repression of democracy and free speech, it gravely harms our efforts to save global democracy."

 

[taxiya]

The US could force a platform ban on Byte Dance which owns both - see Huawei

Vast majority of Chinese still use iOS and Android platforms despite them being Western

The so called "platform ban" on Huawei is a non-existence, it is a conceptual wrong understanding. Google apps and its app store are NOT part of Android OS. They are part of Google customization on top of Android, no difference from Samsung or Huawei's customization and apps.

Despite the "platform ban" on Huawei, Chinese harmonyOs users have no problem of installing apps that are simultaneously available through Google app store.

Despite other Chinese phones such as Oppo running on Android, google store isn't available in China and people have no problem in installing apps.

The impact of so called "platform ban" is zero as far as Chinese market and users are concerned. Douyin is exactly this case, no impact.

Even for Huawei, the ban meant nothing even outside of China, such as in Europe. The ban only means that google apps are not officially installed on Huawei phones sold in Europe. Huawei has no problem using Android code base when it wants to because Google does not own Android but AOS community does.

I have just bought a Huawei watch in Europe through EU shop. It runs on HamonyOS which is a shell on top of Android with Huawei appGallery installed. This is in the same way as Samsung's watch.

 

[siegecrossbow]

In short, Please help my Credit Suisse, please.........

Switzerland last year: China must not invade Taiwan or all Chinese assets in Swiss banks will be confiscated.

Switzerland this March: Oh take me China. You are the greatest. The mere thought of RMB injection gets me so wet…

President Xi: you just pissed yourself in fear. Of course you are wet.

 

[taxiya]

Chinese mobile devices (outside of Apple) rely on Android derivatives, do they not? Google has a high degree of control over any Android platform that isn't actively being developed as a fork (like Harmony OS), because core Android updates come through them. Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo do consumer side customization of the platform, but they do not do core Android platform development. If the US bans access to Android updates, it's going to be a huge blow to any of those individual companies.

The US is smart enough, as I said above, to not do a country wide ban on Android because they prefer to channel resources into "useful idiot" companies. So say they wanted to target Xiaomi - they could just cut that company's access to Android updates, while still allowing it to Vivo and Oppo, causing the latter to gain a competitive advantage because they'll be able to benefit from Android platform upgrades while Xiaomi would be stuck with an older version with all the attendant bugs, security vulnerabilities, and feature deficiencies.

This is part of how they targeted Huawei; of course, the other arm is the chips ban, which works the same way, but with a higher barrier of entry.

Android is NOT owned by Google now. It is an open source community that is not subjected to any sovereign state. The only way to cut off a company from it is to physically block the servers sharing code crossing national border. Even it is done by US, it is still alright to use the code.

Google has zero control to Android after it made Android an open source project. Yes Google contributes a lot of code to AOS code base. But Google has forfeited its ownership over its work due to the rule of open source agreement.

You seriously need to do some study.

 

[xypher]

Switzerland last year: China must not invade Taiwan or all Chinese assets in Swiss banks will be confiscated.

Switzerland this March: oh China please forgive me. You are the greatest. The mere thought of RMB gets me so wet…

President Xi: you just pissed yourself in fear. Of course you got wet.

That was such a dumb move on their, what did they expect? They think their banks are irreplaceable or something? The level of delusion is around the same as "high-tech irreplaceable" Australian beef, lobsters, wine, and coal...

 

[clockwork]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1634592146966839296

A little revolt from the MIC media recently lol. Couldn't be a more obvious coordinated pressure campaign to extort a bit more pay from their MIC funders. This is what presstitutes going on strike looks like. They'll get their wish and then it's back to the regularly scheduled propaganda soon enough.

Lol more of this from one of the most appallingly corrupt MIC media outlets the Guardian.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636479357265780739

 

[baykalov]

Тhis shocking American hypocrisy:

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"The United States and ICC have an awkward history"

June 2020, the United States imposed sanctions on Fatou Bensouda. Within weeks, Bensouda found that banks were closing her accounts and canceling her credit cards. Even her relatives had assets frozen as banks attempted to comply with rules set by the U.S. Treasury.

What was Bensouda’s alleged transgression? Was she a terrorist? A human rights abuser? A corrupt foreign official?
No, she was the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. And the sanctions were placed on her for doing the job she was appointed to do.

The ICC sits in a grand building in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. It is backed by 123 other nations, including U.S. allies all over the world. Bensouda’s office is designed to prosecute major crimes, including war crimes, when the national courts are unable, or unwilling, to do the job

But the poor relationship between the United States and the court goes back far further. The ICC was established by the Rome Statute, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1998. (Only seven countries voted against the treaty: Qatar, Yemen, Iraq, Israel, Libya, China and the United States.) President Bill Clinton later signed the agreement but never sent it for ratification in Congress, while successive U.S. administrations have essentially rejected the court’s jurisdiction.

Under President George W. Bush, the United States implemented a law that allowed the president to “use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release” of a U.S. or allied person detained or imprisoned by the ICC (this law was informally dubbed the “Hague Invasion Act”). The Obama administration made little formal policy change.

The key problem with the court, as made clear by successive administrations, is the idea that an international court could try U.S. citizens, including American soldiers. Bensouda, who had been in office since 2012, moved to open proceedings into war crimes in Afghanistan, the first investigation opened by the court that would involve U.S. troops. When the ICC approved the investigation in 2020, the United States responded with sanctions.

Relations improved from this nadir under the Biden administration, but it took months for the administration to remove sanctions on the court’s prosecutors.

And an article in "France24" from 2018:

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US threatens to arrest ICC judges if they pursue Americans for Afghan war crimes

White House National Security Advisor John Bolton called the Hague-based rights body "unaccountable" and "outright dangerous" to the United States, Israel and other allies, and said any probe of US service members would be "an utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation."

"If the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly," Bolton said.

He said the US was prepared to slap financial sanctions and criminal charges on officials of the court if they proceed against any Americans.

"We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system," he said.

"We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans," he said.

Bolton pointed to an ICC prosecutor's request in November 2017 to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the US military and intelligence officials in Afghanistan, especially over the abuse of detainees.

He also cited a recent move by Palestinian leaders to have Israeli officials prosecuted at the ICC for human rights violations.

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said.

"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We certainly will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own."

Bolton also condemned the record of the court since it formally started up in 2002, and argued that most major nations had not joined.

"This president will not allow American citizens to be prosecuted by foreign bureaucrats, and he will not allow other nations to dictate our means of self defense."

 

[siegecrossbow]

Lol more of this from one of the most appallingly corrupt MIC media outlets the Guardian.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636479357265780739

You should go through the comments on the NYT editorial though. Otherwise educated people parroting official propaganda that China wants to take over the world and only got strong by ripping off generous Americans.

 

[clockwork]

You should go through the comments on the NYT editorial though. Otherwise educated people parroting official propaganda that China wants to take over the world and only got strong by ripping off generous Americans.

Someone asked "why is it always that british and Australian newspapers are somehow even worse than American ones", and I think it's just cheaper presstitute rates in those countries. More willing to do lewder acts for even fewer Raytheonbux. Just continuing the pattern of american vassals having less than no dignity, really.