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☆ China Visa Offices Overwhelmed in Wake of Border Opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Karen Hao | Wenxin Fan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—China has opened its doors to the world after three years of zero-Covid controls—at least in theory. In practice, many travelers eager or desperate to visit the country are struggling to acquire the key that will gain them entry. Processing times for visas to enter China have multiplied as the Chinese Embassy in Washington and consulates across the U.S. struggle to keep up with a wave of applications. Many visa offices are closed entirely, leaving would-be visitors to contend unassisted with an online application system that travel agencies say is prone to crashing.

☆ US-trained Afghan commandos are fighting in Ukraine. Some are there for the pay. Others are there for revenge.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Antonio Giustozzi | World Politics Review | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Afghan commandos who fled the Taliban are being recruited to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine. Former Afghan commandos in Iran that I spoke to largely confirm the rumors, though I found less evidence to support the claim of Wagner's role. After the Taliban takeover, only about 1,000 Afghan commandos were evacuated to the US, while a few others made it to Europe and Turkey. Afghan special forces in Kunduz City. A US Special Forces soldier patrols with Afghan Commandos.

☆ Indians face up to 3-year wait times for U.S. tourist visas
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Sakshi Venkatraman | Sakshi Venkatraman Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Other consulates are only taking appointments for emergency tourist visas, which experts suspect have a shorter backlog of their own. NBC News reached out to the State Department and has not received a response. “The Department of State is successfully lowering visa interview wait times worldwide,” the statement said. The State Department cites staffing issues which it is trying to remedy, but Gelatt says it won't be a quick process. “The State Department says that they’re doubling their hiring and they’re training up staff,” Gelatt said.

☆ Spanish police find more 'bloody packages' sent to Ukraine missions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Spanish police intercepted three more envelopes containing animal eyes addressed to Ukraine's embassy in Madrid and its consulates in Barcelona and Malaga on Monday, police sources close to the investigation said. Last week, Ukraine said a series of "bloody packages" were sent to its missions across Europe, soon after a letter bomb detonated at Ukraine's embassy in Spain and police defused others sent to, among others, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The postal service's security staff detected the new envelopes during screening on Monday morning and alerted police, the sources said. Ukrainian embassy in Madrid had already received a package with animal eyes on Friday that the interior ministry said carried a foreign stamp. Evidence from that package shared with the postal service helped its staff detect the latest one, police sources added.

☆ 'Bloody parcels' containing animal eyes mailed to Ukrainian embassies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Bloody parcels containing the eyes of animals and explosives have been sent to several Ukrainian embassies and consuls across Europe, officials said late Friday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement on Facebook that embassies in Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy had received packages containing the disembodied eyes of animals. Consulates in Naples, Italy, Krakow, Poland, and the Czech city of Brno had also been targeted, he said. Letter bombs were mailed to six addresses in Spain earlier this week, including the Ukrainian Embassy and the U.S. Embassy, as well as to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, causing security to be tightened. Farther south, the Ukrainian consul in Naples, Maksym Kovalenko, told the AP that his office received two letters containing fish eyes at around 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

☆ Ukraine says its embassies in countries across Europe have been receiving bloodstained packages with animal eyes in them
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukrainian embassies in Europe have gotten packages with "animal eyes," in them, an official said. This comes after an apparent bomb inside an envelope exploded at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid. "The packages contained animal eyes," Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a Facebook post on Friday. The gruesome packages were received by the Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, and Austria, Nikolenko said. "We have reasons to consider what's going on a well-planned campaign of terror and intimidation of embassies and consulates of Ukraine," Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

☆ Ukrainian embassies receive 'bloody packages' containing animal eyes - Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Several Ukrainian embassies abroad have received "bloody packages" containing animal eyes, the foreign ministry said on Friday, after a series of letter bombs were sent to addresses in Spain including Ukraine's embassy in Madrid. An embassy source in Rome said human faeces were left in front of the door. Nikolenko also said that the embassy in Kazakhstan had received a bomb threat, which was subsequently not confirmed. The embassy in the United States received a letter containing an article that was critical about Ukraine, he said. Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; additional reporting by Philip Pullela in Rome; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy HeirtageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Niger president calls for job-based immigration quotas in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MILAN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum said in an interview with an Italian newspaper on Friday that African and European states should agree quotas for African immigrants tailored to employment needs. "In France, Spain and Italy you have many jobs in sectors of employment where Africans can work," Bazoum said. "These numbers need to be established, country by country, and then the consulates entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing them." While numbers have subsided, thousands embark on treacherous journeys to European countries each year in hope of finding safer lives and better economic opportunities. Bazoum said agreements between African and European states would help regulate regular immigration and tackle irregular immigration "that fuels the worst trafficking".

CNN —Ukraine’s foreign minister has accused Russia of being behind a series of more than a dozen letters containing explosives or animal parts that were sent to Ukrainian diplomats around the world. “This campaign is aimed at sowing fear,” Dmytro Kuleba told CNN’s Matthew Chance in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on Friday. CNN was shown an image of one of the letters containing what officials said was the eyeball of a pig inside a padded envelope. ‘Who benefits?’Kuleba earlier urged foreign governments to guarantee maximum protection of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Nikolenko also stated that the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States received a letter with a photocopy of a critical article about Ukraine.

☆ U.S. Vows to Tackle Visa Delays as Frustrations Mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The State Department is trying to hire more consular staff and expects to fill all open posts by next fall, an official said. WASHINGTON—A top State Department official pledged Thursday that wait times for tourist, student and work visas would shorten significantly in the next year as the department ramps up processing to meet crushing demand for entry to the U.S. The State Department has been struggling to keep up with visas since 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closing of U.S. consulates around the world, bringing the application process for entry into the country temporarily to a halt. Two and a half years later, some consulates are still offering only emergency appointments.

☆ Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | Photographs Devin Oktar Yalkin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +53 min

Beyond Catastrophe A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View By David Wallace-WellsYou can never really see the future, only imagine it, then try to make sense of the new world when it arrives. (A United Nations report released this week ahead of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, confirmed that range.) A little lower is possible, with much more concerted action; a little higher, too, with slower action and bad climate luck. There were climate-change skeptics in some very conspicuous positions of global power. New emissions peaks are expected both this year and next, which means that more damage is being done to the future climate of the planet right now than at any previous point in history.

☆ China claims right to protect consulate as Britain decries assault
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Britain’s foreign secretary summoned China’s second-most senior diplomat in the U.K. on Tuesday to express the U.K.’s “deep concern” about the assault allegations and to demand an explanation for the actions of the Chinese consulate staff. The protesters had gathered at the consulate as the Chinese Communist Party opened its weeklong congress in Beijing on Sunday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin rejected the accounts of the protester and Manchester police. Video on the BBC website showed a scuffle breaking out in front of the consulate after masked men tore down the protesters’ placards. The Chinese Consulate in Manchester did not respond to a request for comment.

☆ Hong Kong protester assaulted at Chinese consulate in Britain
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — British police said Monday they were investigating the assault of a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester who was beaten up on the grounds of the Chinese consulate in the city of Manchester. The man, who is in his 30s, told the BBC that unidentified Chinese men from the consulate building dragged him inside the consulate and assaulted him during a protest Sunday. The protesters had gathered as the Chinese Communist Party opened its weeklong congress in Beijing. The Chinese consulate in Manchester did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The protesters had gathered as the Chinese Communist Party opened its weeklong congress in Beijing on Sunday.

☆ World says goodbye to Britain's Queen Elizabeth from cafes and consulates
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The hearse transporting the coffin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth drives near Royal Guards along Albert Road on the day of her state funeral and burial, in Windsor, Britain, September 19, 2022. And in Paris, France, bar owner Thibaud Dupont showed off his new tattoo of the monarch on his forearm. "She was not our queen, but she reigned over Britain for 70 years. "Her presence is literally everywhere," IT professional Victor Lai said outside the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, where people have queued for the past 10 days to sign a memorial book. In Bahrain, British expatriates paid tribute to Elizabeth at a service at St. Christopher's Cathedral in the capital Manama.

☆ How China Abuses U.S. Diplomats
▼ + stars: | 2020-09-12 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China’s zero-Covid policy is notorious for coercion and control of its citizens. But what isn’t known, and should be shocking, is how the U.S. government let China impose similar inhumane practices on U.S. diplomats. Congressional sources have shared with us internal memos, emails and cables delivered to State Department senior officials over the past two years. They describe China’s mistreatment of foreign-service officers and their families assigned to the U.S. Embassy and consulates in China. Frustrated by State’s failure to stop the abuse, whistleblowers turned to Congress.

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