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'Fake news': China refutes reports of building land features in South China Sea

‘Fake news’: China refutes reports of building land features in South China Sea

China’s embassy in the Phillippines has denied building up land features in the South China Sea. Several satellite images have shown never-seen-before land formations appearing at Eldad Reed in the northern Spratly islands. New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 23, 2022 17:05 IST Buildings and structures seen on the artificial island built by China in Cuarteron Reef in Spratly Islands, South China Sea (Getty…

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

1968 [Chapter 11: Hephaestus, God Of Fire]

A/N: Only 1 chapter left!!! 🥰💜

Series Summary: Aemond is embroiled in a fierce battle to secure the Democratic Party nomination and defeat his archnemesis, Richard Nixon, in the presidential election. You are his wife of two years and wholeheartedly indoctrinated into the Targaryen political dynasty. But you have an archnemesis of your own: Aemond’s chronically delinquent brother Aegon.

Series Warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, character deaths, New Jersey, age-gap relationships, drinking, smoking, drugs, pregnancy and childbirth, kids with weird Greek names, historical topics including war and discrimination, math.

Word Count: 5.4k

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged! 🥰

💜 All of my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Here is our final interlude. Do you have the patience?

President Lyndon Baines Johnson has halted all U.S. attacks on North Vietnam: no bombs from the air, no infantry on the ground, no artillery shells launched by destroyers cruising in the South China Sea. The election will determine what happens next. If Nixon wins, military operations will resume until the South Vietnamese are in a sufficiently advantageous position to defend themselves from the communists. If Aemond is the victor, troop withdrawals will begin shortly after he is inaugurated on January 20th.

Regardless, it will not be until almost a full year from now, in October of 1969, that it becomes illegal for employers to reserve positions for men; the common practice of refusing to hire women with preschool-aged children will not be outlawed until 1971. Unmarried people will not be guaranteed access to contraception until 1972. Abortion will not be legalized across all fifty states until 1973. Women will not have a right to their own bank accounts or credit cards until 1974. It will not be illegal to exclude women from juries until 1975. The first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, will be appointed in 1981. There will be no female president of the United States, not for at least half a century after our story ends.

Each night on CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite recaps the latest poll numbers. Nixon appears to have a slight advantage, due in large part to pulling ahead in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and his home state of California. Aemond has comfortable leads in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. George Wallace will likely sweep the Deep South: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. From their hovels, the racists rejoice. From her grave, Lurleen Wallace rests uneasily, scratching at the lid of her coffin with the bones of her fingers, entombed in dark oblivion like all the rest of the world’s discarded wives.

~~~~~~~~~~

You go for the door, but Aemond is faster; he catches you just as your hand is twisting the handle and the hinges creak. He throws you against the wall so hard the paintings rattle: replicas of Monets and Warhols, Almond Blossoms, The Birth of Venus. You fight, clawing at him, ripping off the eyepatch that Alys must have at last convinced him was no defeat to wear. The hollow, gore-colored abyss of his left eye socket beckons you to fall in and be burned: Hestia’s eternal hearth, the volcanic forge of Hephaestus. He’s fire all the way down, hunger and fury, bones charred black and brittle. You think of the uninhabitable furnace of Jupiter’s moon Io, lethal radiation, poisoned air, lava bubbling up like blood through a bullet wound.

“You can’t hit me,” you gasp. “You need me for photos—”

His knuckles are in your belly, crosshairs made of scar tissue. The air collapses out of your lungs; your vision dims like twilight, like an eclipse. You’re on the floor and trying to crawl away from him. Aemond’s fingers hook into the fabric of your robe; it matches the silk nightgown you wear beneath, a pale anemic pink, something soft and young and desireless, something eternally at others’ mercy, something to be guarded or gutted. He’s dragging you towards him.

He’s going to hit me again, he might even kill me.

“Stop, stop,” you plead, still struggling to breathe. “What if I’m pregnant?!”

You almost certainly can’t be, but Aemond doesn’t know that. Yet his lone eye glints like metal, like coins, no weak mortal compassion. “I would have no way of being sure it was mine.” And then he tries to cover your mouth as you scream for help. You bite at his fingers; your bare feet kick the wall. Your hair, long and loose and wild, flows around you like a bride’s veil.

Too late, Aemond realizes that the door is still open a crack from when you grabbed the handle. There are footsteps and a voice that crescendos as it approaches: “What on earth is going on in here…?” Fosco appears in the threshold, yellow tweed jacket, tight olive green trousers. He stares thunderstruck down at where you and Aemond are entangled on the floor.

You beg: “Fosco, help me.”

“No, no, no,” Fosco says, jolting from his paralysis and holding a hand out towards Aemond. “No, you cannot do this, whatever has happened, you cannot touch her like—”

“She’s not your wife,” Aemond says. She’s not your property. Fosco hesitates; his large dark eyes shifting between the two of you from behind his glasses.

“Aemond, brother, listen to—”

“Get out.” Aemond’s voice is low, searing, malignant.

“Fosco, please don’t leave me,” you whimper. You try to pry Aemond’s fingers off your robe; they dig in deeper, bruising the flesh underneath. “Don’t leave me, don’t let him hurt me.”

Abruptly, Fosco turns and sprints out of the room.

“No!” you shout after him before Aemond grabs your face, his hand like a claw, fingernails leaving half-moon indents in your cheeks, crushing pressure on your jaw.

“You’re trying to sabotage this campaign.”

“I didn’t see the reporters, I swear to God.”

He knocks the back of your skull against the wall so hard that you see momentary flashes like stars, that all the words vanish from your throat, that words cease to exist at all. “You’re a traitor. Do you know the penalty for treason? The U.S. Army would have you executed by firing squad. Zeus would chain you to a rock so your liver could be carved out.”

“You betrayed me first,” you hiss through clenched teeth, your head pounding hot and maroon.

“I have been working for this since before you were born. You can’t take it away from me. I won’t let you.”

“I did everything right and you still couldn’t love me.” You swing at Aemond and he catches your wounded hand, squeezes it, digs his thumb into the spot where the doctors stitched you closed. The pain is excruciating, incapacitating. You wail as scarlet flowers bloom through the white of your bandaged palm.

Now the door flies open again and Aegon collides with Aemond, sends him sprawling, crouches over you. He’s screaming something at Aemond, gripping your shoulder to keep you under him, his too-long hair hanging in his face, black turtleneck sweater, one of Daeron’s frayed army jackets thrown over it, ripped jeans, bare feet. Aemond grabs his brother by the lapel of his army jacket and draws back his fist. His golden wedding ring flashes in the grey November sunlight that streams in through the windows. Aegon doesn’t flinch. He’s taken knuckles to the face before; you remember cleaning blood off his skin under a streetlight in Biloxi, you remember not wanting to wash him away.

“Don’t you see what it will look like?!” Fosco is saying, trying to coax Aemond to relent. “If he is photographed with a busted face after that story comes out? If she has bruises or a black eye? By harming them you are confirming what your enemies have printed, and the voters will believe it is the truth.”

“They already know it’s true!” Aemond snatches the Wall Street Journal off the table and hurls it at Fosco. Then he paces back and forth through the room, glaring at where you are still crumpled on the floor, sobbing, cradling your bleeding hand to your chest. “It’s right there, three goddamn photographs, and that’s all it will take to bring down a lifetime of work!”

Fosco studies the pictures again, shaking his head, one hand covering his mouth. At last he offers weakly: “It could be worse, Aemond.”

“How could it be worse?!”

Aegon scrambles to Fosco to rip the newspaper out of his hands, then returns to you. He hasn’t seen the front-page story yet. He skims it frantically. “This? This is what you’re losing your mind over? It’s dark, it’s blurry, they can’t even see what’s going on!”

“I have one fucking eye and I can see it!”

“So come up with another explanation, this doesn’t prove anything.”

“If she costs me the election—”

“If you lose, it won’t be because of her!” Aegon roars back. “It will be because the Democrats have held the White House for eight years and the world has gone to hell on our watch, it will be because of Kennedy, and Johnson, and Vietnam and the riots and the hippies and the drugs and the assassinations, it will be because Nixon is promising law and order in a time when nobody is safe, it will be because you just weren’t good enough. But she has given more to your cause than anyone. You hit her and you’ll lose your other eye.”

“They were in conversation,” Fosco says, meaning the photos. The four of you know that’s not true; it is a lie for the rest of the world, it is hope for Aemond’s campaign. “On the beach. They were whispering, comforting each other. Because of Mimi. That is all.”

Aemond scoffs, his remaining eye fierce and wrathful as it lands on you again. Aegon grips your shoulder, still crouching over you, still shielding you. “You bitch. I should have left you at that party in Manhattan to be the dope-smoking whore you were when I found you.”

“I shouldn’t have helped save your life in Palm Beach.”

And Aemond blinks at you, not hurt but bewildered, like he doesn’t understand your words, like what you said is impossible. He doesn’t believe you saved him. He believes it was God’s will.

Otto storms into the hotel room and takes in the scene: you and Aegon on the floor, Aemond pacing furiously, Fosco attempting to mediate. “Nobody says anything,” Otto commands, deep booming voice, black suit like he’s going to a funeral. “The Wall Street Journal hates Aemond. Everyone knows that, they’re probably the only national publication that would run the story. Our newspapers are already pushing the counternarrative, that this was a shameful, deceitful, desperate attempt to discredit Aemond right before the election. Our supporters will insist upon an innocent explanation. Nixon’s will use the photos as evidence of our degeneracy, our amorality, us immigrants with our strange faith and our progressive politics. Everyone else in the country will be warring over this headline. We will say nothing. We will conduct business as usual. The best thing we can do now is go out there and keep our schedule as planned.” He looks meaningfully at Aemond. “And your wife must be at your side. Smiling, unscathed, devoted.”

“I lost my composure,” Aemond says to you, more collected now, businesslike. He is smoothing any wrinkles out of his suit jacket. “I was wrong to put my hands on you. I apologize for that. It was beneath me.”

You reply: “Very little is beneath you, I’ve learned.”

“You have been.” A trace of a grin, crooked and cruel. “Plenty of times. And you will be again.”

Aegon is watching is brother, seething but terrified, sheltering you with power that is only illusory, never real. It is a mirage that Aemond or Otto could punch through at any moment. It is glass that would shatter into crystalline dust.

“If I win, you will beg on your knees for forgiveness,” Aemond tells you. “You will beg in private, you will be perfection in public, and I will magnanimously overlook this indiscretion in which you were taken advantage of by my notoriously dissolute brother. There was no affair. There was a fleeting moment of weakness on your part and depravity on Aegon’s. We will put it in the past. I will be the president of the United States and you will be my first lady. You will spend every second of your existence in service of my career, my country, and my legacy. You will give me children. You will obey me entirely. And you and Aegon will never be in a room alone together for the rest of your lives.”

“You can’t keep me away from her,” Aegon says.

“I just did. I make the rules here, I am the heir to this empire. If you wanted that responsibility, you should have seized it. You squandered it, you cursed it. It’s mine now.”

A whisper: “Aemond, it’ll kill me.”

“Then have the dignity to die quietly. It will be the most useful thing you’ve ever done.”

“Aegon must be seen in public too,” Fosco says, trying to sound like he isn’t defending him. “If you appear to be punishing or excluding him, it will be used as evidence of his guilt.”

Aemond nods, then turns to his brother. “As soon as the election is called, whichever way it goes, I want you gone. I don’t care where you go. I don’t care what happens to you once you’re there. You will disappear. We will say it was your choice, and if you comply you can keep your children and receive a modest amount of severance pay to get you started. And as long as you abide by my terms, my wife will not be harmed.”

Aegon doesn’t reply. His large Atlantic-blue eyes glisten, his lips tremble, his hand is still on your shoulder. You think through the throbbing pain of your bleeding palm: Is this the last time he’ll ever touch me?

Otto grabs Aegon, wrenches him away from you, drags him yowling and clawing at the carpet through the doorway.

~~~~~~~~~~

Your hand is freshly bandaged, pristine white gauze that people in the crowd jostle to touch like the relic of a saint, to pray over, to kiss. Men tell you how brave you are to bear the pain without weeping. Women give you komboskini, stained not with their husband’s blood but with only the clean, colorless ether of hope, faith, reverence, love.

Fosco and Helaena have been dispatched to accompany the children on a tour of the Franklin Institute, one of the oldest centers of science education in the nation. Aemond is giving a speech in front of the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall. You and the others are arranged around him like a starving crescent moon. You are standing immediately on Aemond’s left side, Aegon placed at his right. He looks drunk, he looks drugged; you aren’t sure if anyone else can tell, but you can. His cheeks are flushed. His eyes are pools of murky, desolate indigo like the night sky between stars. A few attendees give the two of you curious glances, but no mention is made of the accusations in the Wall Street Journal. You get the sense that if someone took it upon themselves to ask a question on the subject, they would be jeered, reviled, banished like President Johnson, who is currently besieged in the White House by the ghosts of Vietnam.

When you look to Aemond, you see his scar, his prosthetic eye, fierce and stoic determination in the lines of his face. He is quoting the inscription on the bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…” The bronze metal has a crack in it like one of Zeus’s lightning bolts. The smile on your face is frozen, demure, humble. Aegon’s eyes accidentally catch on yours—a childlike vulnerability, a deep raw woundedness—and then swiftly dart away.

“America is the Land of Opportunity, but some have forgotten that,” Aemond says into the microphone, and vengeance creeps into his voice like a spider up a wall. “Unfortunately, for as long as new communities have arrived at our shores, vile and prejudiced lies have been used to demonize them. Greek immigrants have been crossing the Atlantic for over a century. In 1909, rioters violently expelled them from Omaha, Nebraska. In 1922, an anti-Greek initiative was launched by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1924, Congress drastically restricted my people’s entry in favor of migrants from Northwestern European nations like Britain and Germany. Greeks have been condemned as unintelligent, immoral, and unworthy of the glorious opportunities of this country. We have been barred from jobs and universities, we have been used as cannon fodder in the World Wars. Discrimination against any group is antithetical to the American Dream. I have given an eye for this nation, my wife has bled for it, my brother has—even in the midst of personal tragedy—uprooted his life and the lives of his children to fight alongside me for a better America, and I will not stand by silently as the Targaryen name is tarnished by bigoted falsehoods…”

Now you can no longer hear him over the thunder of the applause, and you remember all the other faces in all those other cities, their eyes illuminated as if by fire, as if by the sun. You imagine devotees of the Greek gods bowing low in temples of white marble and flickering torches, bringing offerings of gold and livestock, grain and blood, murmuring prayers, bargaining for miracles. Did the gods hear them? Do the gods love anyone but themselves?

Alicent and Criston are watching you and Aegon with the same eyes: large, dark, shimmering, a curious combination of horror and profound sympathy. You can feel yourself becoming a ghost, a legend, a myth. One day people will read about you in textbooks and academic journals, in plaques erected at Aemond’s alma mater, Columbia University, and your own, Manhattanville College; and they will know only the fabled version of you. Who you really were will fade into nothingness like Echo, like Icarus into the waves, like Eurydice when her lover Orpheus dared to glimpse back at her.

That night in your penthouse suite at the Ritz-Carlton, you get out of the bathtub—dewy with steam, donning your pink robe—and then go to your side of the king-sized bed and slide open the top drawer of the nightstand. The card Aegon gave you at Mount Sinai isn’t there. Your heartbeat quickens; your stomach lurches.

“What…?”

You get down on your knees to reach into the back of the drawer, to see if the card has snagged somewhere. You hear footsteps and whirl to see Aemond standing in the doorway between the bedroom and the living room. He is holding the card. The cartoon cow beams jubilantly at you. You recall what Aegon wrote inside after crossing out the manufacturer’s message: I thought this was blank…congrats on the new calf! As your eyes widen, Aemond rips the card down the middle.

“Don’t!” you scream, rushing for him. “Please don’t, it’s all I have from—!”

Aemond shoves you back and then, with a grin more like a wolf baring its teeth, tears through the remnants again and again until the card is nothing but shreds. He opens the sliding glass door that leads out onto the balcony and throws them into the cold night wind, where they scatter in a flurry like snowflakes, like bones turned to splinters by cluster bombs in the swamps of Vietnam.

The paper fragments spiral down thirty stories towards the zooming headlights on South Broad Street, and you think about following them. Then Aemond pulls you into his arms as frigid air blows through you and whispers: “You don’t need Aegon anymore. You just need me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s Monday, November 4th, and you are walking alongside Ludwika on Broadway in Astoria, Queens, the part of New York City known as Greektown. She chats about the modelling jobs she did here before meeting Otto, her Louis Vuitton stilettos clicking on the sidewalk, her Camel cigarettes smudged with red Yardley lipstick. It is an act of kindness; she is trying to distract you. A few yards away, Fosco is telling Aegon about how he just won $500 by betting on the NASCAR Peach State 200, held at Jefco Speedway in Georgia. Aegon nods along, preoccupied, miserable. He has dark shadows around his eyes and is smoking one of his Lucky Strikes. He is wearing a green knit cap, windblown curls of his blonde hair escaping from underneath. You’re not supposed to stare at Aegon, but sometimes you can’t help it. You miss him. You’re worried about him.

The Targaryens have suites reserved at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, where the family will stay through Election Day to witness the results as they are tallied on the evening news. The children are there now, enjoying pizza from Little Italy with Helaena and the nannies. But you and the other adults are being photographed by flocks of journalists as you head for lunch at one of the oldest Greek diners in the United States, paying homage to Aemond’s ancestry. The candidate himself is locked in a fraught conversation with Otto and Criston: polls gaining here, polls slipping there, Nixon inching further ahead in Florida, the state you were supposed to help Aemond win.

“What should I order?” Ludwika asks you. “Not spinach pie, oh, horrible, worse than Hitler. Something else. Why can’t we go to a Polish restaurant for once? I will take you sometime. You will see. You will try a pierogi and never look back. We invented bagels, you know.”

“Beagles?” Fosco says. “What an accomplishment! They are so cute!”

“Bagels, stupido.”

“Do not bully me. I am suffering too. I should be back at the hotel eating a prosciutto pizza.”

As you pass an electronics shop with stacks of televisions in the windows, all turned to NBC news, the journalists begin to gasp and chatter excitedly amongst themselves. The flashbulbs strobe madly, shutters clicking and reporters shouting for Aemond to give them a comment. The youngest Targaryen brother has appeared on the screens, bruised and gaunt and missing teeth. He looks twenty years older than he is. His once-golden hair is turning white.

Otto sputters: “What…what the hell is that?!”

“Oh my God, Daeron!” Alicent howls, and then bursts into the shop so she can hear what her lost son is saying. The rest of you hurry after her, locking the front door behind you so the journalists can’t follow. Through the windows, they take photographs until Fosco and Ludwika lower the blinds.

Inside the maze of electronics, three adolescent employees gawk at the presidential candidate and his retinue. “Out,” Otto instructs them, and then, when they are too stunned to immediately vacate the premises: “I said, get out!” The teenagers scurry into the backroom and slam the door.

“Daeron,” Alicent moans in front of a Zenith color television. Tears flow torrentially from her huge, horrified eyes. Criston holds her, arms circling, his cheek pressed to hers, and you are reminded of how Aegon touched you in your hotel room in Houston, in his basement at Asteria, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Daeron is saying: “The United States has committed war crimes in Vietnam. I am ashamed of the actions my country has taken here. We have burned children with napalm, executed innocent civilians, and interfered in matters that we have no legitimate jurisdiction over…”

“He is reading from a script,” Fosco says. “You can see his eyes following the words.”

“Shh,” Otto snaps.

Daeron continues: “The only honorable course of action now is to immediately withdrawal all American soldiers from Vietnam…”

“I think this will help us, actually,” Otto says. “People will know he’s being forced to make propaganda for the communists, and they will have sympathy for him and the family. They’ll want to rescue him and all the other servicemen too. He’s obviously…under duress.”

Aegon drops to his knees and puts his palm against the screen over Daeron’s face, just like the shadows of your fingers once fell over Ari as he fought for his life in an incubator in Mount Sinai Hospital. “Do you see what they’re doing to him?” He turns to Aemond with tears in his eyes. “What you did to him? You left him there, you abandoned him, and now he’s being tortured.”

Alicent looks to Aemond, puzzled, petrified. “You tried to get him out, didn’t you?” Aemond doesn’t answer. Otto averts his gaze, counting the tiles on the floor.

“Dear lord,” Ludwika mutters, lighting a fresh Camel cigarette and puffing on it anxiously.

“Was it worth it?” Aegon demands. “Selling your soul?”

Aemond is steely, resolved. “It’s almost over.”

“You were all right.” Aegon stands, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his green-striped sweater. “I don’t have what it takes to win the presidency. I couldn’t do something like this. Me, the perennial fuckup. Me, the godless degenerate.”

“Aegon,” Alicent whispers. “Please…please don’t…”

He turns to his mother, insurmountably sad. “Mom, I tried to stop him.” Alicent sobs and covers her face with both hands as Criston embraces her. She can’t even look at Aemond. She can’t believe what he’s become. Her long coppery hair flows like blood.

You reach for Aegon, your fingertips brushing his ruddy cheek, and immediately he folds into you, burying his face in the curve of your neck, breathing in your warmth as you inhale his smoke and rum and pain and terror. “Daeron will be home soon,” you say, not knowing if it’s true. Your bandaged hand aches; your throat burns.

“I should have gone instead. It should have been me.”

“No, Aegon. Your children need you, I need you. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

Then Aemond yanks you away, his grip on your wrist like an anchor, like chains.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Dad, play us something,” Orion says; and it is the first time you can remember him calling Aegon that. Aegon smiles. He’s sitting on one of the couches in the penthouse suite you share with Aemond, the Gibson guitar he bought back in July lying across his lap as he strums it absentmindedly. The television is on and turned to CBS News. It’s just before midnight on Tuesday, November 5th, Election Day. The children are thrilled. It’s the one night they’re allowed to stay up as late as they’re physically able to. This allowance is not purely altruistic; Aemond wants them awake and ready for photographs as soon as the winner is announced.

“What should I play?”

“Frank Sinatra,” Fosco says. He is beside Aegon on the couch, smoking a cigar and flipping through the Sports section of the New York Times, which he’s not really reading.

“Marvin Gaye,” Ludwika suggests. They are both on your side of the room. Aemond, Otto, Sargent Shriver, and a number of campaign staffers are huddled around the television, transfixed by the ever-updating vote totals. Alicent and Criston are between your factions, murmuring back and forth to each other, flutes of golden champagne in their hands. Helaena is on the floor entertaining Violeta, Daphne, and Neaera with Crayolas and coloring books full of scenes from gardens. You recall how eerily calm Helaena had been the night Aemond was shot in Palm Beach, like she somehow already knew he’d survive. Now she is nervous, looking fretfully around the room, wringing her hands, filling outlines of butterflies with ten different shades of blue.

“The Beatles,” Orion tells Aegon, casting Fosco and Ludwika a judgmental teenage glance.

“Any particular song?”

“You can pick.”

Aegon sips at his rum, ice cubes clinking in the glass. He looks over to the coffee table, where you are embroiled in a game of Battleship with Cosmo. He’s getting better; he’s genuinely sunk your destroyer and submarine so far. Then Aegon’s eyes drop to his guitar strings and he plucks the opening notes of In My Life. His voice is soft and low, almost secretive.

“There are places I’ll remember

All my life, though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain…”

Cosmo turns to watch his father. Orion, Spiro, Thaddeus, and Evangelos are gathered around Aegon’s feet, gazing up at him with admiration, with love.

“All these places had their moments

With lovers and friends, I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life, I’ve loved them all...”

Cheers erupt over by the television; Aemond has just won Michigan. But then tense, indistinct deliberations follow. Florida is still too close to call, a bad omen. You wonder where Alys is as she watches the results come in. There must be some part of her—however small, however smothered—that fears Aemond will win. If he captures the presidency, she could be separated from the man she loves for the better part of a decade. You drink your Pink Squirrel, wishing it was stronger. You think of sea sponge divers down in the depths and imagine what that first gulp of air tastes like when they resurface, when they shed their rubber suits and brass helmets and step back into sunlight, warmth, freedom like Persephone returning from the Underworld each spring.

“But of all these friends and lovers

There is no one compares with you

And these memories lose their meaning

When I think of love as something new…”

You wear a sapphire-colored gown that Aemond chose for you, strings of silver around your wrist and throat, diamond teardrops hanging from your ears. Your hair is up, your fingernails painted a tasteful opalescent shade, the aching of your bandaged hand dulled by booze and Vicodin.

“Though I know I’ll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I’ll often stop and think about them

In my life, I love you more.”

More triumphant shouts and applause across the room by the television: Aemond has won Washington state. From his own suite at the St. Regis Hotel a few blocks south on 5th Avenue, Nixon’s people must be celebrating that he just secured Ohio’s 26 electoral votes. He needs 270 to be the next president of the United States.

Florida, you think. If Nixon can take Florida, I think he’ll win the whole thing.

As Aemond and Otto are distracted, as Fosco and Ludwika watch with pitying, knowing eyes, Aegon sets his guitar aside and walks by you with his rum in hand, taps your shoulder, disappears onto the balcony. You wait a few minutes—Cosmo wins Battleship and goes to color on the floor with Helaena—and then follow Aegon.

Outside the night sky is moonless, starless, thick with clouds. Rain is beginning to fall, soft hushed pattering. Far below taxis and limousines are still rushing and blowing their horns on West 59th Street. You can see the vast forested shadow of Central Park and streetlights like constellations. In apartments and office buildings, windows are illuminated as Americans sit numbing their fears with beer, wine, shots of liquor, smoldering hand-rolled joints.

Aegon is cross-legged at the ledge, one hand on the iron bars of the railing, staring out at the nightscape of Manhattan. His hair lashes in the cold November wind. His nose is pink, his eyes wet and faraway. He passes his Lucky Strike cigarette to you as you join him and says: “I don’t think Aemond can win without Florida.”

“No,” you agree, taking a drag.

Aegon snatches a rattling orange bottle from the pocket of his olive green army jacket, pops it open, and swallows three pills with a swig of straight rum, dark amber poison.

“Don’t do that,” you say, you plead.

“I need it, babe.”

“I want you to still be alive in ten years.”

Aegon smiles and reaches over to pat your cheek twice. “I think that ship might have sailed, little Io.” Can decades of self-destruction be undone, uninflicted, nullified like Heracles becoming immortal? Can the Underworld be escaped? “Come with me. No matter what happens tonight.”

“Aegon, I can’t.”

“I’m in love with you.”

“If I leave, he’ll hurt you. He’ll hurt me worse.”

“It’s not fair,” Aegon says, his voice breaking.

“Nothing is.”

There is an uproar inside the hotel room, screams that could be horror or triumph, realized dreams, breaking bones, bullets through flesh. You and Aegon are on your feet, hauling the balcony door open, stepping through the threshold into the rest of your lives.

Glasses are being toasted until champagne rains down onto the carpet. The telephone is ringing so Nixon can concede. On CBS News, Walter Cronkite is reporting that Aemond has won Florida and thereby accumulated 270 electoral votes. The blue text on the screen reads: Senator Targaryen will be the 37th president of the United States.

[reasonsforhope]

It has been almost two decades in the making, but late on Saturday night in New York, after days of gruelling round-the-clock talks, UN member states finally agreed on a treaty to protect the high seas.

A full day after the deadline for talks had officially passed, the conference president, Rena Lee of Singapore, took to the floor of room 2 of the UN headquarters in New York and announced that the treaty had been agreed. At a later date, the delegates will meet for half a day to formally adopt the text. She made it clear the text would not be reopened.

“In Singapore, we like to go on learning journeys, and this has been the learning journey of a lifetime,” Lee said.

She thanked delegates for their dedication and commitment. “The success is also yours,” she told them.

She received cheers and a standing ovation from delegates in the room who had not left the conference hall for two days and worked through the night in order to get the deal done.

Pictured: The Intergovernmental Conference on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction congratulating its President, Ambassador Rena Lee, on the successful conclusion of the BBNJ treaty.

The historic treaty is crucial for enforcing the 30x30 pledge made by countries at the UN biodiversity conference in December, to protect a third of the sea (and land) by 2030. Without a treaty, this target would certainly fail, as until now no legal mechanism existed to set up MPAs [Marine Protected Areas] on the high seas.

Ocean ecosystems produce half the oxygen we breathe, represent 95% of the planet’s biosphere and soak up carbon dioxide, as the world’s largest carbon sink. Yet until now, fragmented and loosely enforced rules governing the high seas have rendered this area more susceptible than coastal waters to exploitation.

Veronica Frank, political adviser for Greenpeace, said that while the organisation hadn’t seen the latest text, “We are really happy. The world is so divided and to see multilateralism supported is so important.

“What’s really important is now to use this tool to develop this 30x30 target into force really quickly.” ...

Pictured: Activists from Greenpeace display a banner before the United Nations headquarters during ongoing negotiations at the UN on a treaty to protect the high seas in New York

“High seas marine protected areas can play a critical role in the impacts of climate change,” said Liz Karan, director of Pew’s ocean governance project. “Governments and civil society must now ensure the agreement is adopted and rapidly enters into force and is effectively implemented to safeguard high seas biodiversity.”

The High Ambition Coalition – which includes the EU, US, UK and China – were key players in brokering the deal, building coalitions instead of sowing division and showing willingness to compromise in the final days of talks. The Global South led the way in ensuring the treaty could be put into practice in a fair and equitable way.

Pictured: A world map that shows the full breadth and potential impact of the treat. National waters are shown in white, and international waters, or the high seas, are everything shown in blue.

Michael Imran Kanu, the head of the African Group and ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the UN for legal affairs of Sierra Leone, said the treaty was “robust and ambitious”. Kanu, who expressed concerns during talks over the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, said: “We really achieved amazing results” on this issue. Monetary and non-monetary benefits would be shared and an initial upfront fund would be set up under the treaty. He welcomed the adoption of the “common heritage of humankind” as a key principle for the high seas, which was a red line for many developing states. “That was significant for us”, he said...

In a move seen as an attempt to build trust between rich and poor countries, the European Union pledged €40m ($42m) in New York to facilitate the ratification of the treaty and its early implementation.

Monica Medina, the US assistant secretary for oceans, international environment and scientific affairs, who attended the negotiations in New York, said: “We leave here with the ability to create protected areas in the high seas and achieve the ambitious goal of conserving 30% of the ocean by 2030. And the time to start is now.”

-via The Guardian (US), 3/4/23

[hel-the-growl]

Nezha Reborn annotations - Part 1

Since New Gods: Yang Jian is about to enter NA theaters this week, and before I do a huge information dump about that movie, I wanted to write about its prequel - Nezha Reborn.

I've already seen Yang Jian twice in cinemas here in Australia, and the animation has markedly improved in the one year since Nezha came out - it's definitely worth seeing on the big screen. You don’t need to watch Nezha before Yang Jian but if you’re interested in the lore, then you should lol. It's on netflix.

My original thread on twitter.

Background

Nezha is one of the most well-known characters from the 16th Century Chinese Novel Investiture of the Gods (IOTG), with countless adaptations based on his legend.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn is one of the latest portrayals of the character, and is the first move in Light Chaser Animation Studios' attempt at establishing a New Gods cinematic universe.

Nezha’s origin story

Nezha was born as a round ball of flesh after his mother Lady Yin was pregnant for three years. His dad Li Jing thought he was demon spawn, so tried to kill him but was spared by the immortal Taiyi Zhenren who became his master. At seven years old, he caused a lot of trouble like accidentally killing a demon from 1000 miles away and killing the dragon king Ao Guang’s third son Ao Bing as well as his right hand man the Yaksa Li Gen. When Ao Guang demanded retribution from Li Jing, Nezha chose to sacrifice himself instead. His master later resurrected him using lotus roots to construct a human body, and he came back more powerful than ever. 3000 years later...

Breakdown

Donghai (East Sea). It was the mythical underwater city that Nezha once conquered, now depleted of all its water resources. Set design is inspired by Republican-era Shanghai and Manhattan in the 1920s and 1930s. The poor Chinese style backdrop is contrasted against the glitz of the Western style architecture in the rich area. Rickshaws were commonplace on the streets.

Fashion is also blend of east and west, like the guy wearing kung fu shoes with a denim jacket.

The qipao was a favored dress among women at the time, popularized by Chinese socialites and high society women in Shanghai. Flapper fashion also influenced Kasha’s outfit, blending eastern and western styles.

Li Yunxiang shares the same surname as the original Nezha. His brother Jinxiang’s name is also similar to Nezha’s eldest brother Jinzha. Jinxiang’s look is very typical of the republican era - complete with his center-parted hair and round glasses.

Old Li has the same temperament as Nezha’s dad, The Pagoda Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing.

Who is Yunxiang’s adoptive sister Kasha? She’s an orphan of Belarusian descent, however not much else is known about her past. Her name means porridge in Belarusian. It might be a corruption of Katyusha (喀秋莎) with middle character removed in order to follow Chinese naming conventions idk.

If you know the history of the Republic of China, there were many girls like Kasha in that era. Her father was a soldier and left Kasha and her mother after the war.

✨Princess✨ Ao Bing～～ and the Yaksa Li Gen. Ao Bing is the third son of the Dragon King of the East Sea. The Yaksa Li Gen is the dragon king’s right hand man.

The four big clans - De, Li, Shun, Song (德家、利家、顺家、松家) - actually corresponds to the titles of dragon kings of the four seas. King De, Dragon King of the East Sea; King Li, Dragon King of the South Sea; King Shun, Dragon King of the West Sea, King Song, Dragon King of the North Sea.

A netizen looked this up and really wanted to kneel to Light Chaser for their worldbuilding.

Fun fact: the white horse from Journey to the West is the third son from the Song family.

H*rley-D*vidson Darrley-Hudson product displacement on the arm of Kasha’s jacket:

Actually the film has left some hints about her past. There are some Soviet-style badges pinned to her jacket, along with some small badges that Kasha herself added as well. Since this jacket is huge, it can be assumed that it was left to Kasha by her biological father.

The giant buddha statue is reminiscent of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan.

Daddy! Ao Guang, the dragon king of the East Sea.

Art deco details on the hood ornament, decals and invitation card.

Monkey’s suit is basically a hot pink version of the Zhongshan suit, a style of menswear introduced by Sun Yat-sen during the republican era, adapted from Japanese student wear. The four pockets are said to represent the Four Virtues of propriety, justice, honesty, and shame. He's blinged up his prayer beads too.

Does this mean Dr. Su is a descendent of Su Daji, the femme fatale of IOTG? Or could she actually be Daji’s reincarnation? Now I don’t know whether to trust her or not.

All these sea creature demons. Why? Chinese dragons are aquatic. They live underwater, and command water-based attacks, unlike western dragons who breathe fire. So it makes sense for them to control an army of demons that came from the deep.

So this is the crystal palace.

After Nezha’s death, Li Jing found out that Nezha’s mother had built a temple in his honor and burned it down because he was still angry at his son for all the trouble he caused to the family. The soul of Nezha was pissed and after his reincarnation, began to pursue his dad with the intent to kill. It took several parties to step in before matters were resolved.

Looks like monkey likes to listen to Peking Opera.

The Pukui fan, commonly known as the cattail fan, is a fan made from palm leaves and stalks. Lightweight and cheap, it is the most widely used fan in China.

Part 2｜Part 3

[beardedmrbean]

A screenshot from video provided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines purports to show a Philippine boat forcibly towed away from its fellow Philippine fleet by two China Coast Guard boats, in the South China Sea on June 17, 2024. Credit - Armed Forces of the Philippines

The Philippine military denounced China’s latest actions in the hotly disputed South China Sea, saying that a confrontation earlier this week resulted in a Filipino navy serviceman losing a finger.

Late Wednesday local time, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) shared a series of videos and posts on social media about the Monday incident, which it called a “brazen act of aggression.” Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard, said the footage serves “as a clear indication that humanity has once again allowed barbarism to trample upon compassion.”

The AFP posts, backed by recordings, asserted that Chinese forces brandished bladed weapons, deployed tear gas, hurled rocks, and blared sirens and strobe lights to cause disorder, among other measures, at Filipino troops aboard rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs). A Chinese aircraft circled overhead, the AFP added, “in a further display of excessive force and intimidation,” as the China Coast Guard (CCG) allegedly forcibly commandeered a Philippine boat.

In a press conference earlier Wednesday, AFP commander Alfonso Torres Jr. said CCG personnel “illegally boarded” the Philippine rubber boats that were conducting a routine resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded vessel at the Second Thomas Shoal that has functioned as an outpost to maintain the Philippines’ claim to the shoal.

Torres also said the Chinese “looted” seven of the Philippine navy’s rifles, which were disassembled inside gun cases and were supposed to be for Filipino servicemen stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre.

Eight Philippine navy personnel reportedly sustained injuries, though the military has only confirmed one victim: a sailor whose right thumb got severed after the CCG rammed the Philippine boats.

“Because of the speed, the forward portion of the China Coast Guard’s RHIB landed on top of our troop’s RHIB, and unfortunately our troop’s hand was there,” Torres said. “It’s a relief that it wasn’t the whole hand.”

AFP chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. said the standoff, the latest in a series of escalations in the disputed waterway, marked the first time Filipino troops encountered CCG members armed with bladed weapons like bolos, knives, and spears, which they allegedly used to pierce through Philippine Navy boats. “We saw in the video how the Chinese even threatened our personnel by pointing their knives,” Brawner said.

Brawner said the AFP demands that Beijing return the disassembled rifles. “We are also demanding from them to pay for the damages that they have caused,” he added. “For me, this is piracy already… Because they boarded our boats illegally. They got our equipment. Again, based on their actions, it’s like they are pirates.”

The Philippines’ foreign affairs department said it “denounces the illegal and aggressive actions of Chinese authorities that resulted in personnel injury and vessel damage.”

China’s foreign ministry, in response to the accusations, said Wednesday that its actions against Philippine troops were “professional and restrained and aimed at stopping the illegal ‘resupply mission’,” adding that its maneuvers did not constitute “direct measures.”

The clash came just days after Beijing implemented a new administrative law that effectively authorizes the CCG to arrest foreign vessels that “illegally enter China’s territorial waters” and to detain foreign crews for up to 60 days.

But the Philippines and its allies, including the United States, continue to point to an international tribunal ruling invalidating China’s claims to the sea that China ignores.

The U.S. State Department on Monday condemned China’s actions, which it said “threatens regional peace and stability,” and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to a mutual defense treaty with Manila, which is meant to come into effect should Philippine forces face an “armed attack.”

[darkmaga-retard]

Ukraine

Moscow Says It Repelled ‘One of the Largest’ Ukrainian Drone Attacks AWC

Ukraine Says It’s Using US-Provided HIMARS Inside Russia AWC

China

US Vows To Defend the Philippines in the South China Sea After Latest Collision AWC

Israel

Hostage Talks at Impasse Because US Proposal Is Too Favorable Toward Israel AWC

Netanyahu at Odds With Israeli Military Over Gaza-Egypt Border AWC

Israeli Intel Chief Takes Responsibility for Oct 7 Failures in Resignation Speech The Institute 

Israeli Airstrike Kills Fatah Official in Southern Lebanon AWC

Yemen

US Strikes Target Yemen’s Red Sea Province of Hodeidah AWC

[newstfionline]

Monday, April 22, 2024

The Town at the Center of a Supreme Court Battle Over Homelessness (NYT) Inside a warming shelter, Laura Gutowski detailed how her life had changed since she became homeless two and a half years ago in Grants Pass, a former timber hub in the foothills of southern Oregon. “I never expected it to come to this,” Ms. Gutowski, 55, said. She is one of several hundred homeless people in this city of about 40,000 that is at the center of a major case before the Supreme Court on Monday with broad ramifications for the nationwide struggle with homelessness. After Grants Pass stepped up enforcement of local ordinances that banned sleeping and camping in public spaces by ticketing, fining and jailing the homeless, lower courts ruled that it amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” by penalizing people who had nowhere else to go. Many states and cities that are increasingly overwhelmed by homelessness are hoping the Supreme Court overturns that decision. They argue that it has crippled their efforts to address sprawling encampments, rampant public drug use and fearful constituents who say they cannot safely use public spaces. That prospect has alarmed homeless people and their advocates, who contend that a ruling against them would lead cities to fall back on jails, instead of solutions like affordable housing and social services.

In New York City, Most Major Crimes Are Down, But Assaults Are Up (NYT) Just before noon last Saturday, a 9-year-old girl was with her mother at Grand Central Terminal when a man strode up to the child and, without warning, punched her in the face. The child, dizzy and in pain, was taken to the hospital. Jean Carlos Zarzuela, 30, a man who had been staying in a homeless shelter in East Harlem, was quickly arrested. It was among a number of recent assaults that have unnerved New Yorkers, who have seen a rash of attacks reported on the streets and on the subway. Police leaders and Mayor Eric Adams have trumpeted sharp decreases in the number of murders, rapes, robberies and burglaries since 2022. Still, assaults continue to vex police and city leaders. Felony assaults, a major crime category defined as an attack where a dangerous weapon is used or a serious injury results, are up in recent years. So are misdemeanor assaults, such as the one at Grand Central, in which a victim is punched, kicked or hit but no weapon is used.

Blinken will be the latest top US official to visit China in a bid to keep ties on an even keel (AP) Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this coming week as Washington and Beijing try to keep ties on an even keel despite major differences on issues from the path to peace in the Middle East to the supply of synthetic opioids that have heightened fears over global stability. The rivals are at odds on numerous fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Taiwan and the South China Sea, North Korea, Hong Kong, human rights and the detention of American citizens. The United States and China also are battling over trade and commerce issues, with President Joe Biden announcing new tariffs on imports of Chinese steel this past week. The State Department said Saturday that Blinken, on his second visit to China in less than a year, will travel to Shanghai and Beijing starting Wednesday for three days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Talks between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected, although neither side will confirm such a meeting is happening until shortly before it takes place.

Ecuadorians head to polls to toughen fight against gangs behind wave of violence (AP) Ecuadorians head to the polls Sunday in a referendum touted by the country’s fledgling leader as a way to crack down on criminal gangs behind a spiraling wave of violence. The majority of 11 questions posed to voters focus on tightening security measures. Proposals include deploying the army in the fight against the gangs, loosening obstacles to extradition of accused criminals and lengthening prison sentences for convicted drug traffickers. Ecuador, traditionally one of South America’s most peaceful countries, has been rocked in recent year by a wave of violence, much of it spilling over from neighboring Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine. Last year, the country’s homicide rate shot up to 40 deaths per 100,000, one of the highest in the region.

Wave of narco-violence stuns Argentina city (AP) The order to kill came from inside a federal prison near Argentina’s capital. Unwitting authorities patched a call from drug traffickers tied to one of the country’s most notorious gangs to collaborators on the outside. Hiring a 15-year-old hit man, they sealed the fate of a young father they didn’t even know. At a service station on March 9 in Rosario, the picturesque hometown of soccer star Lionel Messi, 25-year-old employee Bruno Bussanich was whistling to himself and checking the day’s earnings just before he was shot three times from less than a foot away, surveillance footage shows. The assailant fled without taking a peso. It was the fourth gang-related fatal shooting in Rosario in almost as many days. Authorities called it an unprecedented rampage in Argentina, which had never witnessed the extremes of drug cartel violence afflicting some other Latin American countries.

Thousands protest in Spain’s Canary Islands over mass tourism (Reuters) Thousands of people protested in Tenerife on Saturday, calling for the Spanish island to temporarily limit tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is driving up housing costs for locals. Holding placards reading “People live here” and “We don’t want to see our island die”, demonstrators said changes must be made to the tourism industry that accounts for 35% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Canary Islands archipelago. Demonstrators say local authorities should temporarily limit visitor numbers to alleviate pressure on the islands’ environment, infrastructure and housing stock, and put curbs on property purchases by foreigners.

Moscow says 50 Ukrainian drones shot down as attacks spark fires at Russian power stations (AP) Ukraine launched a barrage of drones across Russia overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Saturday, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Fifty drones were shot down by air defences over eight Russian regions, including 26 over the country’s western Belgorod region close to the Ukrainian border. Two people died during the overnight barrage. Ukrainian officials normally decline to comment about attacks on Russian soil. However, many of the drone strikes appeared to be directed toward Russia’s energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian and Western leaders laud US aid package while the Kremlin warns of ‘further ruin’ (AP) Ukrainian and Western leaders on Sunday welcomed a desperately needed aid package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, as the Kremlin warned that passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine and cause more deaths. Ukrainian commanders and analysts say the long-awaited $61 billion military aid package — including $13.8 billion for Ukraine to buy weapons — will help slow Russia’s incremental advances in the war’s third year — but that more will likely be needed for Kyiv to regain the offensive. In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday called the approval of aid to Ukraine “expected and predictable.” The decision “will make the United States of America richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians, the fault of the Kyiv regime,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

Time Is Running Out for Rahul Gandhi’s Vision for India (NYT) Rahul Gandhi stood in a red Jeep, amid a churning crowd in Varanasi, trying to unseat the Indian government. It was the morning of Feb. 17—Day 35 of a journey that began in the hills of Manipur, in India’s northeast, and would end by the ocean in Mumbai, in mid-March. In total, Gandhi would cover 15 states and 4,100 miles, traveling across a country that once voted for his party, the Indian National Congress, almost by reflex. No longer, though. For a decade, the Congress Party has been so deep in the political wilderness, occupying fewer than a tenth of the seats in Parliament, that even its well-wishers wonder if Gandhi is merely the custodian of its end. Indian pundits and journalists bicker about many things, but on this point they’re unanimous: Only a miracle will halt the B.J.P. Still, it falls to Gandhi, steward of his enfeebled party, to try. One of Modi’s successes has been not just to trounce the Congress Party but also to persuade people that the party has weakened India and emasculated its Hindus. Through his cult of personality, Modi is fulfilling a century-old project, recasting India as a Hindu nation, in which minorities, particularly Muslims, live at the sufferance of the majority.

No let-up for Gazans while world focused on Iran attack (BBC) While the media’s glare in the Middle East this past week was diverted to Iran’s dramatic missile and drone attack on Israel, there has been no let-up in fighting in Gaza. Dozens of Palestinians were killed daily—including many children, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry. It now says Israel has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza since the start of the war. As Israel’s forces continue with their efforts to destroy Hamas, they have conducted small-scale, often deadly operations, from the top to the bottom of the territory over the past week. On Tuesday, in the middle of Gaza, relatives clutching limp and bloodstained bodies of small boys and girls rushed from al-Maghazi refugee camp to al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. Medics at the hospital said that at least 12 people were killed and some 30 injured by shelling in al-Maghazi. “They were playing in the street. Why were they struck? They weren’t in any position close to Israeli forces,” one man told the BBC.

Deadly heat wave surges through West Africa (AP) Street vendors in Mali’s capital of Bamako peddle water sachets, ubiquitous for this part of West Africa during the hottest months. This year, an unprecedented heat wave has led to a surge in deaths, experts say, warning of more scorching weather ahead. The heat wave began in late March, as many in this Muslim majority country observed the holy Islamic month of Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting. On Thursday, temperatures in Bamako reached 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) and weather forecasts say it’s not letting up anytime soon. The city’s Gabriel-Touré Hospital reported 102 deaths in the first four days of the month, compared to 130 deaths in all of April last year. It’s unknown how many of the fatalities were due to the extreme weather.

[brostateexam]

As the sea rises and the population booms, builders around the world are in a race to transform coastal bays and shallow seas into new land. Yet don’t mistake this rush of land reclamation as a response to the challenges we face. “It’s built for rich people,” explains Dhritiraj Sengupta, a physical geographer at England’s University of Southampton. Sengupta’s latest research shows there’s been a huge increase in the use of reclaimed land for luxury hotels, shopping areas, and high-end living spaces—developments designed to boost a city’s global reputation.

Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is a good example of this prestige building, Sengupta says. Tourism and economic development—especially to lure a wealthy clientele—has driven most of the building boom in Dubai. But it also highlights the issues with reclaimed land. The World in Dubai, a world map–shaped artificial archipelago and one of the largest examples of luxury reclamation, covers around 50 square kilometers. But development on the islands has stalled, and there are claims it’s already washing away.

Land reclamation—dumping sand, rocks, and other materials along coastal areas and building structures like sea walls to keep it all in place—is not new. Many metropolises, like New York City in New York and Mumbai in India, are built on reclaimed land, as are large swaths of some countries, like the Netherlands. But what is striking about recent land reclamation, Sengupta says, is the pace. “Cities are growing rapidly,” he says.

Using satellite imagery to analyze the growth of 135 coastal cities with at least one million residents between 2000 and 2020, Sengupta found that 106 cities have expanded into the sea. In total, these 106 cities have added more than 2,530 square kilometers of land—an area the size of Luxembourg. Asia is leading this land grab, accounting for 98 percent of the growth.

Shanghai, China, alone has reclaimed 350 square kilometers of land, while Colombo, Sri Lanka, built 100 square kilometers in just four years. Elsewhere, cities in South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore all added at least 30 square kilometers to their coasts over the past two decades.

But when Sengupta compared his analysis with data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he found that more than 70 percent of this new land will likely be underwater by 2100.

[mariacallous]

Early last month, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the special climate envoys representing the United States and China, held talks in southern California ahead of the Xi-Biden summit. The location—Sunnylands, a desert estate near Palm Springs—was symbolic. It was there that Xi Jinping and Barack Obama first met as presidents in 2013 and secured a climate breakthrough: a commitment to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, a group of powerful greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

As Kerry and Xie arrived in Sunnylands 10 years later, they found themselves in more perilous circumstances, and with a finite window of opportunity. Friction between the U.S. and China disrupted climate talks in 2022, and new tensions—whether from the South China Sea or Taiwan’s upcoming January election—could slam the window shut again. Plus, Xie, China’s lead climate negotiator for the better part of two decades, will reportedly retire later this month.

The two envoys wasted no time during their summit, according to two climate experts familiar with the discussions. Kerry, who is 79, and Xie, who is 74 and recently recovered from a stroke, stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m. every night, hashing out plans. When the meetings reached their scheduled end, Kerry and his team drove west to Los Angeles with Xie, checking in to the Chinese team’s hotel to continue talking until their flight’s departure.

Climate has become a rare area of in-depth coordination between the two superpowers; the joint statement that would emerge from Sunnylands was the latest of three such statements from Xie and Kerry in the past three years. They are the elder statesmen of the climate circuit—Xie’s ruddy, round face as familiar as Kerry’s gaunt silhouette at international conferences. The extent of U.S.-China cooperation, former Chinese and U.S. officials as well as climate experts told Foreign Policy, is partly attributable to the two envoys and their bond, developed over decades of negotiations.

“This is a very good example of how personal leadership can transcend national differences,” said Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “I think both Xie and Kerry, they are pushing that potential to the limit.” The two men have known each other for 25 years, and for both, climate diplomacy is far more than a job—it is a mission.

Born the same year as the People’s Republic of China, 1949, Xie’s early years were similar to those of many officials of that generation. During the Cultural Revolution, he was “sent down” to the countryside along with millions of other young people—to the northeastern tip of China, bordering Siberia. “My sense is the people who had that experience came back with a profound sense of the need for development, but [Xie] always coupled it with this view that the environment needs to be protected,” said Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University who was formerly an environmental counselor at the U.S. Embassy in China.

Xie went on to study engineering at Tsinghua University and became an environmental official in the 1980s. By 1993 he was head of China’s version of the EPA. He held that position through the height of China’s economic boom—a difficult time to be in charge of protecting the environment. In 2005, Xie resigned from his position after a major chemical spill in the northern Songhua River. Though he had taken the fall for the crisis, he proved resilient. In 2007, he was appointed vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, a powerful post given the department’s role in economic planning. At the same time, he became China’s lead international climate negotiator—and it was then that his path intertwined with Kerry’s

Kerry’s own interest in environmentalism was sparked early on. “Carson instilled in me and a whole generation a sense of moral urgency,” Kerry wrote in his 2018 autobiography, referring to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published his freshman year at Yale, which documented rampant pesticide pollution. As a Massachusetts senator starting in the ‘80s, Kerry promoted environmental legislation and attended international climate negotiations. “All through the years when he was a senator, if one senator would show up at the COP meetings at the end of the year, it was John Kerry,” Todd Stern, the lead U.S. climate negotiator during the Obama administration, said in a 2021 interview, referring to the annual U.N. climate summits called Conference of the Parties.

Xie’s first meeting with Kerry as head of the Chinese delegation, at the Bali COP in 2007, was a fiery standoff, said Qian Guoqiang, a Chinese climate diplomat in attendance. “Xie was sitting down and Kerry opened up the talk in a very tough way,” telling China what to do, Qian said. Xie replied, “‘We aren’t going to talk in this way. You first need to realize you have your problems,’” Qian recalled. “They were like two lions fighting with each other.” Eventually, Kerry moderated his tone, Qian said.

That early meeting shows not only how far the diplomats’ relationship has come since, but also how far the two countries have moved toward consensus on climate action. At the time, there was a divide under the Kyoto Protocol, the prevailing climate agreement, between developed countries and developing countries, with the latter free of any binding obligations. The U.S. and other major countries didn’t support that framework—particularly after China became the world’s largest emitter in 2006. Meanwhile, Xie and other Chinese officials argued that China’s per-capita emissions remained much lower than those of developed countries—the largest historical emitters—which still hadn’t met their climate promises. The argument came to a head at the 2009 COP in Copenhagen, which was supposed to produce a new global climate framework but failed to yield consensus.

In those years, Xie was known to publicly air his frustration with developed countries. At the 2011 COP in Durban, South Africa, he gave a widely broadcast speech in the final hours of the negotiations. “You’ve talked for 20 years, but you haven’t honored your commitments,” Xie said, pounding his fist. “We’ve done what we should do, but you haven’t. What qualifications do you have to lecture us?” The hall of delegates erupted in applause.

“He’s a canny negotiator,” said Jonathan Pershing, a former lead U.S. climate diplomat in the Obama and Biden administrations. “He uses a combination of charm—he’s completely charming—and bluster.”

As another former senior Obama-era climate negotiator described Xie, “He’ll pound his fist on the table, and then give you a hug. But part of the reason that works is because I think nobody ever questions … [whether] he’s genuinely committed.”

Despite the fireworks, the U.S. and China started to move toward one another behind the scenes. Stern told Foreign Policy that after Copenhagen, China “wanted to find a way forward in general, but also in particular with the United States.”

China saw that climate action could be in its interest, allowing it to develop competitive green industries and reduce air pollution. “If you talked to Xie at that point, what you got from him was we’re doing climate, but we’re doing it on the back of these other issues,” Pershing said.

In order to bridge their countries’ differences, Stern and Xie also set about building their relationship. Stern and other leading U.S. climate diplomats traveled to Xie’s hometown, Tianjin, for climate meetings and rode the shiny, new high-speed rail there at their host’s invitation. Back in the U.S., Stern gave Xie the full American hot-dog-and-cracker-jacks experience at a Chicago Cubs game. “I sort of liked him right away,” Stern said. “I mean, he’s a very colorful guy.”

While Stern led the U.S. negotiations in those years, he credits Kerry for driving the process forward as secretary of state. According to his autobiography, Kerry made it his personal mission to help forge a new climate deal. He knew “the essential first step was finding a way to cooperate with China.” Kerry had witnessed the acrimony at Copenhagen and talked with Xie frequently in the following years. “We met in China, in the United States, at conferences around the world, all of which steadily built a trusting, personal relationship,” Kerry wrote.

Through this flurry of personal diplomacy, a major breakthrough came in 2014. The U.S. and China put forward new national emissions targets together, and in doing so, paved the way for the Paris Agreement, which all the COP countries agreed to the following year. Recalling the moment Obama announced the bilateral deal with Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Kerry wrote, “I finally felt we had reached a moment of turning. … In Beijing, there was a real sense of possibility.”

That U.S.-China climate consensus turned out to be short-lived, of course. Donald Trump soon pulled the U.S. out of the freshly inked agreement. But China stayed in the pact and went on to set a new goal on its own terms. In 2020, before the United Nations General Assembly, Xi announced that China would strive to be carbon neutral by 2060—a boost for the world’s climate hopes.

The pledge took the world by surprise, but Xie had been lobbying for it for years. He had taken a post as president of Tsinghua’s new climate institute; there he coordinated dozens of think tanks to model China’s pathways to carbon neutrality. Xie presented the results of that research to China’s highest-level policymakers ahead of Xi’s announcement, according to Zou Ji, president of Energy Foundation China, which funded the research. “I would say Minister Xie played a very important role to push—to facilitate—that process; otherwise, I saw no one else pushing that at such a high level.”

Joe Biden’s election and decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement revived hope—as well as questions about U.S.-China climate cooperation. Could the two countries pick back up where they had left off? And if so, what would successful U.S. climate diplomacy look like now that the two countries had set their respective targets?

Both presidents knew who to turn to for answers. Biden appointed Kerry the first U.S. special presidential envoy for climate. Subsequently, Xie, who had left government for Tsinghua, was brought back as a special envoy on the Chinese side. “The two of them were absolutely the best choices for their two governments to be the climate envoys in this difficult period,” said John Holdren, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who served as Obama’s top science advisor.

The old lions returned to a harsher political landscape. The Biden administration sought areas of cooperation but maintained a tough-on-China stance. China, in turn, didn’t accept the U.S. framework of overall “competition” between the two countries. Temperatures flared at the first bilateral meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.

Nonetheless, both sides seemed to agree that climate cooperation was in their best interest. A month after the Anchorage meeting, Kerry became the first Biden official to visit China. Later in 2021, after meeting 30 times, the two envoys reached a breakthrough during the Glasgow COP. In a joint declaration, they made some important new contributions: China had previously pledged to start decreasing its coal use in the 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030)—at Glasgow it agreed it would make “best efforts” to decrease its coal use earlier; both countries would work together to reduce potent, short-lived methane emissions this decade; and China would publish its own methane action plan.

That deal reflected some of the limits of China’s cooperation. For instance, China agreed to the softer methane language with the U.S. after declining to sign on to an international pledge to cut methane emissions 30 percent by 2030. “I always have the sense that [Xie’s] caught … between officially representing the interests of his country as defined by a system that’s bigger than him. … But also, within that context, genuinely pushing for positive progress with the belief that engagement and cooperation and joint leadership works,” said the former Obama-era U.S. negotiator.

Pershing, who was the no. 2 climate diplomat in Biden’s first year, credited Kerry for moving the conversation forward. “He’s indefatigable—the guy doesn’t seem to need to sleep very much. … I go to meetings, and around three o’clock in the morning, I’m going, ‘I think we’re not getting anywhere.’ And John is still out there continuing to say, ‘No, no, we can fix this. We can make this happen,’ and my experience is that he’s actually right.”

The nascent era of climate cooperation wasn’t insulated fully from the broader tensions, though. In August 2022, after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, Chinese officials cut off cooperation across the board, including on climate change.

As diplomats in the U.S. tried to repair the bilateral relationship, Kerry and Xie quietly went back to work. After meeting frequently over the past year, and following their meeting in southern California last month, the envoys published the Sunnylands Statement, the longest and, in Stern’s opinion, strongest statement yet. China, for the first time, agreed to include all sectors of the economy and all greenhouse gases in its next Paris targets, due in 2025. Another critical, albeit wordy, goal on China’s side was to achieve “post-peaking meaningful absolute power sector emission reduction” in the 2020s—a significant goal because it “indicates [China’s] growing confidence in early peaking,” Li wrote. Both sides also supported the international goal to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The Sunnylands Statement is also notable for what it was lacking—for one, any clear commitment from China to stop building coal plants. Republicans have criticized Kerry for being soft on China and not forcing the country to take more aggressive measures in line with U.S. climate targets.

The reality is that the U.S. has a limited ability to push China these days. In July, right as Kerry was visiting Beijing for talks with Xie, Xi said that China was committed to its climate goals, but the pathway and pace for meeting them “should be and must be determined by ourselves, and never under the sway of others.”

Climate experts acknowledged that the declaration is far from perfect, but they said it is significant, nonetheless. Referring to China’s commitment to establish an all-encompassing set of targets in 2025, Pershing said, “That’s a big thing. It doesn’t read like a big thing because we assumed that that would be true. But don’t assume. It’s not trivial. Making these statements alters the domestic action.”

Experts also said these statements have teed up progress in international climate talks. According to Pershing, unless the U.S. and China collaborate effectively ahead of negotiations, “the system kind of grinds, and maybe doesn’t move.” China also helps push forward recalcitrant countries, he added. “If you get China, which is a big partner for many places, you can move the rest of the world.”

At a press conference last month on the eve of COP28, Kerry echoed his sentiment, stating, “Without China and the United States aggressively moving forward to reduce emissions, we don’t win this battle.”

After the current round of climate negotiations in Dubai wraps up next week, Xie is expected to retire from government. Kerry has also previously discussed retirement, Axios reported, although he hasn’t announced a date.

Liu Zhenmin, who most recently served as undersecretary-general of economic and social affairs at the United Nations, is expected to replace Xie. Climate experts are waiting to see whether Liu’s style and approach will align with Xie’s. Liu notably brings deep experience, having led China’s early U.N. climate negotiations, including the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in his career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Despite renewed U.S.-China cooperation, the hardest work lies ahead. In China’s case, this includes actually reducing emissions. By 2025, all countries are expected to set their climate targets for 2035—which for China means determining a pace for emissions reduction for the first time. So far, China has only committed to peaking its emissions before 2030. At COP last week, Xie said China would submit new climate targets for 2030 along with its goals for 2035, signaling that the government may be willing to step up its ambition.

The U.S., meanwhile, has been implementing the Inflation Reduction Act—the most significant climate bill in U.S. history—but it must reduce its emissions at a faster rate to meet its 2030 targets. It has also yet to provide developing countries with the full financial support it has pledged—let alone what experts say is needed.

“What happens in the post-Kerry-Xie era is a huge question mark,” said the former senior U.S. climate diplomat who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. “I sense that both Kerry and Xie are seriously in legacy-cementing mode,” fighting “as hard as they can to lock in as much progress as they can before they ride into the sunset.”

[croowdly]

Russia Ukraine war: Moscow launches air strikes as Putin’s forces ‘repel Kyiv attack on Crimea’

Crimean Bridge badly damaged after ‘multiple blasts’ in early hoursFor free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsRussia launched overnight air attacks on Ukraine‘s south and east using drones and possibly ballistic missiles, Ukraine‘s Air Force and officials said early on Tuesday.A fire broke out at one of the “facilities” in the port of Mykolaiv late on Monday, the city mayor said. The port city provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea.“It’s quite serious,” Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said on the Telegram messaging app of the fire, adding that more detail will come in the morning.The southern port of Odesa and the Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were under threat of Russian drone attacks, the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.It added that Russia may be using ballistic weaponry to attack the regions of Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad.It comes as Russian defence ministry said they repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday - a day after an explosion on the bridge killed two people. The ministry said their air defences destroyed 17 drones and another 11 drones were intercepted by electronic warfare systems.

Key Points

Show latest update 1689667500Taiwan says looking to buy NASAMS air defence system from USTaiwan is looking to buy National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, from the United States to upgrade its air defence capabilities having seen how well they work in Ukraine, the island’s defence minister said on Tuesday.China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military and political pressure over the past three years to try to force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing’s rule.NASAMS have been provided by the United States for use in Ukraine, with U.S. officials saying they have had a 100% success rate in intercepting Russian missiles.The system, developed and built by Raytheon Technologies and Norway’s Kongsberg Gruppen is a short- to medium-range ground-based air defence system that protects against drone, missile, and aircraft attack, which both Canada and Lithuania have also bought, or are buying for Ukraine.Asked on the sidelines of parliament about Taiwan buying NASAMS, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said “certainly” there was a proposal to get them.“This work must be done in accordance with the enemy situation,” he said. “We have seen from the Russia-Ukraine war that these weapons definitely have good performance.”However, Taiwan has not received any official notification from the U.S. that they will sell NASAMS to Taipei, Chiu said.“But we need this work to be done as soon as possible.”The U.S., Taiwan’s main foreign source of weapons, formally makes notifications to the island about the arms Washington is willing to sell.The U.S. is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations. China routinely denounces such arms sales.Taiwan’s military has been paying close attention to the war in Ukraine for lessons on defending against a much larger opponent, for example by the use of drones.Maryam Zakir-Hussain18 July 2023 09:051689665497Odesa port infrastructure damaged in overnight Russian attacksRussia carried out missile and drone strikes on southern and eastern Ukraine overnight that caused damage to infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.The attacks followed a pledge of retaliation by Russia after a blast on a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Monday. Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking the bridge, which is used to transport military supplies to Crimea, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014.Ukraine‘s air force said all six Kalibr missiles that were fired overnight, and 31 out of 36 drones, were shot down. The missiles and most of the drones were downed over Odesa and Mykolaiv regions in the south, while the rest were destroyed over the eastern regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.Ukraine‘s southern operational military command said that all six Kalibr cruise missiles fired by Russia overnight were shot down over Odesa, and that 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed over the surrounding region.It said falling debris and blast waves damaged several homes and unspecified port infrastructure in Odesa, but gave few details. There was no word of any deaths but an elderly man was wounded in his home and was taken to hospital, it added.Odesa has often been attacked since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 although the port was part of the U.N.-brokered deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain that Russia pulled out of on Monday.The latest attack was “further proof that the country-terrorist wants to endanger the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential staff, said on Telegram.Maryam Zakir-Hussain18 July 2023 08:311689663012A B&Q generator and a commandeered truck: Behind the British Wolfram vehicles helping Ukraine fight PutinWolfram vehicles are now standard weaponry for the British military, with possible export orders pending, writes Kim Sengupta:The Wolfram armoured vehicle headed for the armoured column coming through the valley and fired salvos from its Brimstone missile system, setting the Russian T-57 tank aflame. Further along the frontline, a rider on an electronic bike was carrying out a lone attack, hitting the convoy at the flank using a Carl-Gustaf Mk4 rocket launcher.The operation taking place was a military exercise in Lulworth, Dorset – but the tactics and weapons being used were from the Ukraine war. The Wolfram was developed by the British military in the early days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion with an urgent plea for help from Kyiv to counter Russian heavy armour.Maryam Zakir-Hussain18 July 2023 07:501689662963Russia launches drones and missiles on Ukraine’s south and eastRussia launched overnight air attacks on Ukraine‘s south and east using drones and possibly ballistic missiles, Ukraine‘s Air Force and officials said early on Tuesday.A fire broke out at one of the “facilities” in the port of Mykolaiv late on Monday, the city mayor said. The port city provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea.“It’s quite serious,” Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said on the Telegram messaging app of the fire, adding that more detail will come in the morning.The southern port of Odesa and the Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were under threat of Russian drone attacks, the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.It added that Russia may be using ballistic weaponry to attack the regions of Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad.Reuters could not independently verify the reports.Air raid alerts blared in many Ukrainian regions for hours, before being called off at around 04:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT).Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region’s military administration, said air defence systems there were engaged in repelling several waves of Russian drone attacks.Maryam Zakir-Hussain18 July 2023 07:491689661775Russia foils Ukrainian drone raid on CrimeaRussia repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said, a day after an attack on the Crimean bridge which damaged it and disrupted car traffic.Russian air defences destroyed 17 drones and another 11 drones were intercepted by electronic warfare systems, the ministry said. The “terrorist attack” did not inflict any damage or casualties, it added.On Monday, a blast knocked out Russia‘s bridge to Crimea in what Moscow called a strike by Ukrainian sea drones, killing two people.Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.A satellite image shows a view of the Crimea bridge, in Kerch Strait (via REUTERS)Maryam Zakir-Hussain18 July 2023 07:291689658081Russia says Ukrainian drone raid foiled over CrimeaRussia’s defence ministry has claimed the country’s air defences and electronic countermeasure systems downed 28 Ukrainian drones over Crimea in the early hours of today, reported the RIA news agency.No casualties or damages have been seen so far, the ministry said.The raid comes a day after an attack by suspected Ukrainian sea drones on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea, which damaged it and disrupted car traffic.Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied it carried out the attack.Arpan Rai18 July 2023 06:281689657455Crimea bridge attack: Everything to know about the Kerch BridgeThe Kerch Bridge saw traffic halted for six hours following reports of multiple explosions at around 3am yesterday.Europe’s longest bridge connects the Russian city of Krasnodar in the east to Kerch in Crimea, which was illegally annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014.The Crimean Bridge runs over the Kerch Strait and is the only direct road link between Russia and the annexed peninsula. It consists of a separate roadway and railway – fortified by concrete stilts – which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.Here’s everything you need to know about the bridge, now a sensitive target in the invasion:Arpan Rai18 July 2023 06:171689655690Russia's Kharkiv troop levels close to Soviet-era, says UkraineRussia has amassed more than 100,000 troops and hundreds of tanks in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv, officials in Ukraine said.“For two days running, the enemy has been actively on the offensive in the Kupiansk sector in Kharkiv region,” deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram.“We are defending. Heavy fighting is going on and the positions of both sides change dynamically several times a day.”More than 100,000 Russian troops and more than 900 tanks are now deployed in the area, said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern command.Russia has drafted in airborne units and their best motorised infantry units to the area, he said, with the deployment now close to the around 120,000 seen in the region at the height of the Soviet Union’s 1979-89 war in Afghanistan.In May, around 370,000 Russian troops were inside Ukraine as a whole, according to an estimate by Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.Russia is building up its defences and lining up troops near towns Kupiansk and nearby Lyman, regions retaken by Ukraine late last year as Kyiv’s forces remain stacked in the east and south for the counteroffensive launched several weeks ago.Large groups of Russian personnel were now trying to break through Ukrainian defence lines in the area, officials have said.“The enemy is concentrating everything in order to break through the defences of Ukrainian troops,” he said.“Our soldiers are holding their defences, preventing the enemy from fully seizing the initiative and they are continuously launching counterattacks,” the spokesperson said.Arpan Rai18 July 2023 05:481689653347Russia fires drones, missiles on Ukraine’s south and eastRussia resumed overnight air attacks in the early hours today on Ukraine’s south and east using drones and possibly ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force and officials said.A fire broke out at one of the “facilities” in the port of Mykolaiv late on Monday, the city mayor said. The port city provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea.“It’s quite serious,” mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said about the blaze on the Telegram, adding that more detail will come in the morning.The air force warned that the southern port of Odesa and the Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were under threat of Russian drone attacks.Russia may be using ballistic weaponry to attack the regions of Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad, it addedArpan Rai18 July 2023 05:091689649239Putin vows revenge after Crimea bridge attackVladimir Putin has said his defence ministry is readying proposals for a response to an overnight attack on a bridge in Crimea as he blamed Ukraine for carrying out the strike.Calling it a cruel and senseless act, the Russian president said the bridge “has not been used for military transportation for a long time”. He was speaking after a televised video meeting with national and regional officials to assess the consequences of the attack.While Kyiv has not claimed any responsibility for the attack, Ukrainian media said the war-hit nation’s security services had deployed maritime drones against the bridge.The attack killed a Russian couple and injured their 14-year-old daughter. The family was driving over the bridge to go on a holiday in the annexed peninsula.Ukraine has said Russians have no business holidaying on seized territory, especially while Moscow is bombing the country.The attack on the bridge, the second in less than 10 months targeting a symbol of Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea, comes around summer holiday season as Russians drive to or from the peninsula.Arpan Rai18 July 2023 04:00 Source link Read the full article

[voskhozhdeniye]

On Thursday, the US sailed a warship near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the South China Sea amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing in the region.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it drove away the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius after it “illegally” sailed near the disputed islands. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet disputed China’s claims and said the Milinus “was not expelled.”

The US doesn’t recognize most of China’s claims to the South China Sea and began challenging them during the Obama administration by sending warships near Chinese-controlled islands, maneuvers dubbed “Freedom of Navigation Operations.”

Map of the South China Sea and areas each country claims

China and several of its Southeast Asian neighbors have overlapping claims to the South China Sea. The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The dispute has become a major source of tensions between the US and China as Washington has become involved and has increased its military activity in the South China Sea.

The US also backs the Philippines’ claims against China and has been deepening military cooperation with Manila. The US and the Philippines signed a deal last month that will give the US military access to four more bases in the Philippines, including one in Palawan, a Philippine province facing the South China Sea.

China is strongly against the US military expansion in the Philippines and has made that clear to Manila. Beijing is not happy that some of the new bases will be in northern areas of the Philippines, facing Taiwan.

Before Khanna’s delegation visited Taiwan, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), another member of the China committee, said members of the panel would be visiting the island soon and acknowledged it would “infuriate” Beijing.

In response, Auchincloss said he didn’t care if the visit angered China. “They’re angry. I don’t care. We’re going to stand with freedom and democracy wherever it is in the world, in Ukraine, in Taiwan, and on the streets of Tehran,” he told the Beast. “We can’t flinch just because the CCP is angry.”

[usafphantom2]

Chinese Air Force Xian H-6N bomber launching a CH-AS-X-13 anti-ship ballistic missile over the South China Sea

China’s New Aircraft Carrier Killer Is World’s Largest Air-Launched Missile

H I Sutton sheds some light on China's latest aircraft carrier killer: The CH-AS-X-13 air-launched anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM).

H I Sutton 01 Nov 2020

Navies are racing to develop hypersonic missiles which may change the pace of naval warfare. Russia will deploy the Zircon hypersonic missile aboard warships and submarines. The US Navy has started down the path of the common hypersonic glide body (c-HGB) for its destroyers. Meanwhile China’s latest hypersonic weapon is something completely different; it is air launched.

The massive new missile, labelled CH-AS-X-13, is probably the largest air-launched missile in the world.

The missile was first reported by Ankit Panda, the Stanton Senior Fellow at the Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in April 2018. More recently candid images have appeared on Chinese social media. These provide a clearer view of the novel weapon.

Analysts believe that it may be intended to target high-value warships, particularly aircraft carriers. This makes it an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). And it appears to be carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). This may give it extended range and increase survivability against air defenses.

The CH-AS-X-13 may be closely related to the ground based DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. Image analysis suggests that it has different dimensions however, so may use a different rocket motor. The most likely reason for this would be the physical restrictions imposed by carrying it under an H-6 bomber. Additionally it appears to be equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) similar to the one seen on the DF-17 ballistic missile. Clearer images in the future may clarify this.

The DF-21D is believed to have a range in excess of 1,500 km. The CH-AS-X-13 may have a similar range, or possibly further due to the aerial launch and a hypersonic glide vehicle. Either way, being carried by a bomber will massively increase its overall reach. The H-6N version which carries it has aerial refueling to further increase their range. The CH-AS-X-13 is therefore a threat beyond the first island chain and South China Sea. It could potentially hit targets in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, or Indian Ocean.

Even if the missile has this incredible range it will face challenges reaching its full potential. Finding and tracking an aircraft carrier at extreme ranges may be the Achilles’ heel. And a lot may depend on the survivability of the bomber itself, and the number of aircraft available for the mission. Context, of course is everything.

The H-6 bomber is not limited to the CH-AS-X-15 however. It can also carry a range of anti-ship missiles. Foremost among these is the YJ-12 supersonic missile. This is similar to the Russian Kh-31 (AS-17 Krypton) missile, but significantly larger. At least four YJ-12s can be carried, meaning that a squadron of bombers could launch a saturation attack on a Carrier Battle Group. The subsonic KD-63 (also commonly referred to as the YJ-63) can also be carried.

Having anti-ship ballistic missiles may also be used to message China’s potential adversaries. On August 26 China test fired a DF-21D ASBM into the South China Sea. This was just weeks after the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had been exercising in the area. The CH-AS-X-13 adds another dimension to the threat to carrier battle groups, so its development alone can be seen as sending a clear message of China’s increasing military confidence.

TAGS Anti-ship missile ASBM CH-AS-X-13 China DF-21D H-6N Hypersonics PLAN South China Sea

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DEFEA 2023

AUTHORS

Posted by : H I Sutton

H I Sutton writes about the secretive and under-reported submarines, seeking out unusual and interesting vessels and technologies involved in fighting beneath the waves. Submarines, capabilities, naval special forces underwater vehicles and the changing world of underwater warfare and seabed warfare. To do this he combines the latest Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) with the traditional art and science of defense analysis. He occasionally writes non-fiction books on these topics and draws analysis-based illustrations to bring the subject to life. In addition, H I Sutton is a naval history buff and data geek. His personal website about these topics is Covert Shores (www.hisutton.com)

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[beardedmrbean]

North Korea said a second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit failed early Thursday, but the reclusive country vowed to launch another in the coming months.

The Malligyeong-1 reconnaissance satellite was mounted on a new type of carrier rocket called the Chollima-1 and launched from a station in North Pyongan province in the early morning hours, according to the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA). The first and second stages "all flew normally, but failed due to an error in the emergency explosion system during the flight of the third stage," KCNA said in a statement.

North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration is investigating the cause of the accident and plans to attempt a third launch in October, according to KCNA.

North Korea attempted to launch its first spy satellite on May 31, but it crashed into the West Sea after an "abnormal starting" of the second-stage engine, KCNA said at the time.

MORE: North Korea satellite launch fails, with another promised as 'soon as possible'

In 2018, North Korea claimed to have put a satellite into space but international analysts later said that wasn't true.

Thursday's second attempt coincided with joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, which North Korea has long denounced.

The U.S., South Korea and Japan all issued statements "strongly" condemning North Korea's use of ballistic missile technology for its launch, which despite its failure they said is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The three allies also reaffirmed their commitment to work closely together to achieve "complete denuclearization" of North Korea in line with the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"This space launch involved technologies that are directly related to the DPRK intercontinental ballistic missile program," Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a statement, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. "The President’s national security team is assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners."

"The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement," Watson added. "The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the defense of our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies."MORE: US, Japan and South Korea's leaders hold historic meeting as threats from China, North Korea loom large

The incident was assessed as not posting "an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies," according to a statement from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which noted that it would "continue to monitor the situation."

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the military "was prepared in advance through identifying signs of an imminent launch."

The office for Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed that he held a telephone call with his South Korean and U.S. counterparts on Thursday morning to discuss North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch. The three officials agreed that the launches are happening "in an unprecedented frequency and in new manners" and that they "constitute a grave and imminent threat to the regional security and pose a clear and serious challenge to the international community," according to a statement from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Group of Seven, an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., also released a statement condemning "in the strongest terms" North Korea's launch.

[mindsandpens]

🌍 Weekly World Brief: Global Tensions Heating Up 🌍

Welcome to this week's Geopolitics Gazette World Brief, where we dive into the latest global conflicts and power struggles. From Israel's aggressive new offensive in the West Bank to Ukraine's faltering defense against Russian advances, and U.S.-China diplomatic tensions—here's what you need to know.

🇮🇱 Middle East: Israel's West Bank Offensive Escalates

On August 28, 2024, Israeli forces launched a major raid in the West Bank, targeting cities like Jenin and Tulkaram with tanks, drones, and bulldozers. This operation, the largest since the second intifada in 2002, has already resulted in at least 24 Palestinian deaths and widespread destruction of infrastructure, including homes and electric grids.

Israel claims it's targeting militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but the scale of the destruction suggests a broader agenda. As violence escalates, the international community grows increasingly concerned about Israel’s actions, while Palestinian leaders condemn the raids.

🔗 Read More: The devastating impact of Israel’s West Bank raids.

🇺🇦 Russia-Ukraine War: Kursk Incursion Fails to Halt Russian Advance

Ukraine's bold incursion into Russia's Kursk region has not stopped the Russian military's push toward the critical city of Prokrovsk in the Donbas. Despite early successes, Ukraine's offensive has lost momentum, allowing Russia to reclaim territory and advance dangerously close to Prokrovsk—only 8 kilometers away.

As criticism mounts over Ukraine’s decision to divert forces to Kursk, the situation on the eastern front becomes increasingly precarious. If Prokrovsk falls, the entire defense line could crumble, posing a severe threat to Ukraine’s war efforts.

🔗 Read More: Ukraine’s strategic missteps and their consequences.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 US-China Relations: Sullivan's Beijing Visit Sets the Stage

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan concluded a crucial three-day visit to Beijing, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on August 29, 2024. This visit aimed to ease U.S.-China tensions, particularly over issues like Taiwan, the South China Sea, and economic security. While no major agreements were reached, progress was made in military communication—a step toward preventing conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

This diplomatic effort lays the groundwork for a potential meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office, signaling a pivotal moment in U.S.-China relations.

🔗 Read More: The high-stakes diplomacy between the U.S. and China.

In Summary

Israel’s raids in the West Bank continue to wreak havoc as ceasefire talks in Gaza stall.

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk hasn’t stopped Russia’s advance, putting the eastern front at risk.

U.S.-China talks may pave the way for a crucial Biden-Xi meeting as global tensions simmer.

Stay informed, stay engaged. Don’t forget to follow Geopolitics Gazette for your weekly global briefings! 🌍✨

Tags: #Geopolitics #MiddleEastConflict #UkraineWar #USChinaRelations #GlobalTensions #InternationalNews #WorldBrief