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☆ China says certain countries must stop 'fuelling the fire' in Ukraine conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Ukrainian servicemen ride a self-propelled howitzer outside the town of Siversk, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 20, 2023. REUTERS/Yevhen TitovBEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China is "deeply worried" that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control, China's foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, and called on certain countries to stop "fuelling the fire". The United States has warned of consequences if China provides military support to Russia, which Beijing says it is not doing. "We urge certain countries to immediately stop fuelling the fire," Qin said during a speech, referring to the Ukraine conflict and in comments that appeared to be directed at the United States. Chinese-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sold Asian powers including China greater volumes of oil.

☆ Austin's Manila visit to bring deal on expanded base access - Philippines official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( David Brunnstrom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON/MANILA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's visit to the Philippines this week is expected to bring an announcement of expanded U.S. access to military bases in the country, a senior Philippines official said on Wednesday. "There's a push for another four or five of these EDCA sites," the a senior Philippines official said. The Philippines official said increased U.S. access needed to benefit both countries. "The deal with Russia was very attractive because for a certain budget we were able to get something like 16 of these heavy-lift helicopters," the official said. He said the U.S. and Philippine marines were pursuing similar capabilities with ground-based rockets, with Manila's particular interest being to protect its South China Sea claims.

☆ Top U.S., Chinese and Russian officials tour Africa as global charm offensive gathers pace
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, during a news conference with Enoch Godongwana, South Africa's finance minister, at the National Treasury in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Yellen met with South African officials including President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, just days after the country's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor stood alongside Lavrov and vowed to strengthen bilateral relations between Pretoria and Moscow. South Africa was one of 17 African nations to abstain from the U.N. vote in March to condemn Russia's war of aggression. As such, many African nations desire a strong relationship with both the U.S. and China, and U.S. diplomacy will be more effective when not framed as an "us-or-them" proposition. What's more, the BRI projects were "largely uncoordinated and unplanned," he said, with competing Chinese lenders offering credit to African nations, challenging the notion of a coherent centralized "debt trap" policy from Beijing.

[1/7] U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) walks on the day of House Democratic leadership elections on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 30, 2022. The vote by Jeffries' fellow Democrats also marked the rise of a younger generation of leaders in the 435-member House and the end of the Nancy Pelosi era. In 2007 she became the first woman to be elected House speaker. Jeffries, a 52-year-old New Yorker, will hold the position of House Democratic leader for the 118th Congress that convenes on Jan. 3. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was not surprised that Jeffries, a fellow Brooklynite, was chosen.

☆ U.S. House Democrats set to elect Hakeem Jeffries as first Black party leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Richard Cowan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Jeffries, a 52-year-old New Yorker, is running for House Democratic leader for the next two years. If he is elected as expected during closed-door voting, he would become the first Black person to hold a top party leadership job in the House or Senate. "Meaningful policymaking and public engagement opportunities should be robustly distributed regardless of length of service," Jeffries wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats. Running for election as part of Jeffries' team are Representative Katherine Clark, 59, who is seeking the No. 2 Democratic whip job, and Pete Aguilar, 43, vying for Jeffries' current job of Democratic caucus chairman.

Akin to lengthy nutrition labels, Amazon's so-called AI Service Cards will be public so its business customers can see the limitations of certain cloud services, such as facial recognition and audio transcription. The goal would be to prevent mistaken use of its technology, explain how its systems work and manage privacy, Amazon said. The cards would address AI ethics concerns publicly at a time when tech regulation was on the horizon, said Kearns. Amazon chose software touching on sensitive demographic issues as a start for its service cards, which Kearns expects to grow in detail over time. In 2019, Amazon contested a study saying the technology struggled to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin tones.

☆ The trade issues at stake for US and China economies at Indonesia meeting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Juliana Liu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Frustrated by China’s huge trade surplus and accusing it of stealing US intellectual property, former President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods in June 2018. China, with its nearly $18 trillion economy, has in recent years been the main driver of global growth. China responded by slapping tariffs of its own on iconic American products like Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s. Tech curbsBekink said she did not expect any dramatic shifts in trade flows to emerge as a result of the Biden-Xi meeting. US imports of semiconductors from China are 26% lower than before the imposition of 25% tariffs, according to Peterson.

☆ China is no longer just any emerging market — it has become its own beast
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Analysts note longer-term trends of China's reduced dependency on foreign investment and intellectual property. Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesBEIJING — China is no longer just another emerging market play. Analysts note longer-term trends of China's reduced dependency on foreign investment and intellectual property. So far, she said, the number of clients excluding China isn't "overwhelming," and by metrics such as per capita GDP the country remains an emerging market. An internal party committee, or office, gathers together a company's employees who are members of the Communist Party of China.

☆ New York to install security cameras on every subway car
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Lucas JacksonNEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is installing security cameras in all of New York City's subway cars, officials announced on Tuesday. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said the cameras would make riders more confident in the safety of the transit system. The plan is to install two cameras in each of 6,355 subway cars, building on a pilot program that saw cameras installed in 100 cars. There are already security cameras in the subway system's more than 470 stations, though they do not always work. All survived their injuries, but the police search for the shooter was hampered by problems with the security cameras in the station.

Among them: an order to immediately halt construction on former President Donald Trump’s signature border wall. Before Biden stopped new construction on the wall, the Trump administration had built 458 miles of what it dubbed “border wall system,” according to final figures compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and provided to U.S. News. The total figure also includes what the agency calls “secondary border wall” or sections of wall built behind preexisting barriers that ultimately remained in place. Since taking office and largely stopping wall construction, Biden has canceled border wall projects paid for by Pentagon funds. The Biden administration most recently said it would use border security funding allocated by Congress to close small gaps in border barriers and to pay for environmental fixes and the clean-up of border wall construction sites.

Persons: Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s, Biden, Trump, Alejandro Mayorkas Organizations: U.S, Defense, Democrats, U.S . Customs, Border, U.S . News, Border Patrol, Lone Star State, Pentagon, Defense Department, Homeland Locations: U.S, Arizona, Yuma, Tucson, New Mexico, Texas, El Paso, Rio, Rio Grande Valley . California, San Diego, El Centro, Mexico, Alaska, Germany

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