Gorbachev: Conflicted Catalyst of Cold War’s End

Mikhail Gorbachev will be remembered in the West for laying the basis for more constructive relations to ease the end of the Cold War, but vilified in Russia for speeding the Soviet Union’s demise.

Article by Thomas Graham

August 31, 2022 10:45 am (EST) Council on Foreign Relations

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev waves during the May 1 parade in Moscow’s Red Square in 1991.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev waves during the May 1 parade in Moscow’s Red Square in 1991. Wojtek Laski/Getty Images

The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in 1985 determined to transform a stagnant Soviet Union into a dynamic, prosperous, and powerful socialist country; he never developed a coherent, concrete plan to do that. Rather, he improvised as the political and economic ground shifted around him. That rattled the hard-liners who thought he was destroying the Soviet Union and dismayed the reformers who feared he was moving too slowly to save the country. After six years, the hard-liners had enough: They failed to oust him in an ill-conceived coup attempt in August 1991, but wounded him sufficiently so that the reformers could ease him out of power at the end of that year—as the country he sought to revive collapsed, and a new Russia emerged. Tiếp tục đọc “Gorbachev: Conflicted Catalyst of Cold War’s End”

UN report on human rights in Xinjiang is damning for China. But what will its impact be?

Analysis by Simone McCarthy, CNN

Updated 0945 GMT (1745 HKT) September 2, 2022
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet gives a final press conference at the UN offices in Geneva on August 25, 2022.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet gives a final press conference at the UN offices in Geneva on August 25, 2022.

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong (CNN)
For Adila Yarmuhammad, the release of a damning new report from the United Nations’ top human rights official on the treatment of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang brought relief, and sadness.
The Australian-born 22-year-old, whose family comes from the region in the northwest of China, woke up Thursday to a flurry of WhatsApp messages about the report from other young Uyghurs worldwide.
“Everyone is relieved that something like a report came out … (but) the sense of relief doesn’t come with complete relief,” said Yarmuhammad, a leader in an Australian Uyghur youth group.
Tiếp tục đọc “UN report on human rights in Xinjiang is damning for China. But what will its impact be?”

Tại sao cần phải phá sản nhiều hơn?

(Nguồn: Chính phủ, VCCI) 23/04/2012 06:04 GMT+7

TTCT – Đứng về góc độ kinh tế, hình thức doanh nghiệp trách nhiệm hữu hạn, và sau này là cổ phần, cùng với luật về phá sản là một sáng tạo độc đáo của loài người. Nó tạo ra một sân chơi mới rộng lớn và an toàn để mọi người có thể tham gia làm giàu cho mình và cho xã hội mà không phải lo mất trắng.

Thị trường bất động sản đang trì trệ, nhiều dự án đầu tư, xây dựng dang dở – Ảnh: T.T.D.

Mỗi cá nhân khi bước chân vào thị trường lao động thường có hai lựa chọn hoặc là đi làm cho người khác để hưởng lương, hoặc trở thành một doanh nhân. Người ta chỉ chọn trở thành doanh nhân khi họ cho rằng thu nhập kỳ vọng từ công việc này cao hơn. Thu nhập kỳ vọng này bị ảnh hưởng bởi nhiều yếu tố, trong đó có các yếu tố về thị trường, khả năng của doanh nhân về ý tưởng, sản phẩm, năng lực triển khai, tài chính… và các chính sách của nhà nước.

Tiếp tục đọc “Tại sao cần phải phá sản nhiều hơn?”

Council on Foreign Relations: Daily News Brief Sept. 1, 2022

Top of the Agenda

Delayed UN Report Details China’s Human Rights Violations in XinjiangA UN human rights office report [PDF] issued yesterday said the Chinese government’s detentions of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups in the Xinjiang region could constitute “crimes against humanity.” The report noted (NYT) that two-thirds of former detainees interviewed described treatment “that would amount to torture and/or other forms of ill treatment.” The report stopped short of calling China’s actions “genocide,” as the United States has done. 

Human rights groups have criticized UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet over a nearly yearlong delay in the report’s release. The report asks that Beijing (AP) release those who have been arbitrarily detained and disclose the whereabouts of individuals who are missing. Beijing denounced the report as a fabrication, while Uyghur activists celebrated its release.   
Tiếp tục đọc “Council on Foreign Relations: Daily News Brief Sept. 1, 2022”

China’s dim prospects turn disastrous

BY DIANE FRANCIS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR – 08/29/22 10:30 AM ET The Hill
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Russia’s terrible war generates headlines, but China’s growing debt crisis is mostly ignored. And yet, it will have profound negative effects on the global economy. In just three generations, Beijing built a middle class bigger than America’s entire population. But now Chinese many face ruination. China’s domestic real estate bubble, due to deregulation, is so gargantuan that much of its middle class has been damaged.

“China’s debt bomb looks ready to explode and many warning signs suggest that a debt reckoning is imminent,” warns Nikkei Asia.

Tiếp tục đọc “China’s dim prospects turn disastrous”

Daily News Brief August 29, 2022

ImageDaily News BriefAugust 29, 2022
Top of the Agenda

Over One Thousand People Killed in Catastrophic Pakistan FloodsPakistani officials are appealing for international aid (CNN) as uncharacteristically strong monsoon rains cause nationwide flooding. The floods, which climate change minister Sherry Rehman called a “climate catastrophe,” have so far displaced more than three million people, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. While Pakistan usually sees four rainy periods per year, it is currently experiencing its eighth, Rehman said.
The flooding comes as Pakistan experiences an economic crisis (FT). Some preliminary estimates put the cost of the damages (Reuters) around $4 billion, though Pakistan’s foreign minister said it is likely higher.
Tiếp tục đọc “Daily News Brief August 29, 2022”

Tự do học thuật và an ninh quốc gia

HOA KIM 27/11/2021 18:10 GMT+7

TTCTĐào tạo sinh viên nước ngoài là hoạt động giao lưu nhân dân có ý nghĩa nhưng cũng là mối lo của nhiều cường quốc trước nguy cơ gián điệp kiểu mới.

 Ảnh: CNN

Nhật Bản là quốc gia mới nhất yêu cầu các trường đại học phải xin giấy phép trước khi chuyển giao công nghệ liên quan đến an ninh quốc phòng cho sinh viên quốc tế. Theo tạp chí Nikkei, quy định này áp dụng cho các sinh viên nước ngoài học tập tại Nhật từ 6 tháng trở lên và “chịu ảnh hưởng” từ nước khác, ví dụ như có hơn 25% thu nhập đến từ tài trợ của một chính phủ nước ngoài. Các trường hợp này phải được báo cáo về Bộ Kinh tế, thương mại và công nghiệp (METI) để được cấp phép.

Tiếp tục đọc “Tự do học thuật và an ninh quốc gia”

Putin falsely claims Ukraine invasion ‘in full conformity’ with UN Charter

FACT CHECK: Putin falsely claims Ukraine invasion ‘in full conformity’ with UN Charter

Voice of America – 26-8-2022

Addressing the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on August 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that his war on Ukraine does not violate the U.N. Charter and was launched to protect the residents of Ukraine’s Donbas region from “genocide.”

“We have taken the decision to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine, a decision which is in full conformity with the Charter of the United Nations. It has been clearly spelled out that the aims of this operation are to ensure the security of Russia and its citizens and protect the residents of Donbas from genocide,” he said.

That statement is false.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine violated not only the U.N. Charter but also international law and even Russian law. Moreover, under international criminal law, the invasion is viewed as a crime of aggression.

40 Years of solitude

40 Years of solitude

Al Jazeera English – 5-2-2014

Filmmaker: Sana El Younoussi

What will become of families stranded in Vietnam since their Moroccan fathers defected from the French army in 1953?

In the 1940s, young Moroccans joined the French army to earn a living and support their families.

In 1953, many were serving in Indo-China when they learned of the exile of King Mohamed V and deserted to join the forces of Ho Chi Minh. Tiếp tục đọc “40 Years of solitude”

The lost tribe: The CIA’s secret army in Laos

The lost tribe: The CIA’s secret army in Laos | REWIND

Al Jazeera English – 24-8-2019

We trace a forgotten Hmong community in the jungles of northern Laos who helped the US during the Vietnam War.

Half a century ago, as war raged in Vietnam, an isolated community in the jungles of northern Laos was recruited by the CIA to help fight the Pathet Lao – the Laotian equivalent of Vietnam’s Viet Cong.

Over 50,000 of the Hmong tribe became part of the United States’s secret army, helping disrupt Communist supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Tiếp tục đọc “The lost tribe: The CIA’s secret army in Laos”

Frankenswine? No, but research on “zombie pigs” raises life-or-death ethics questions

thebulletin.org

Pigs. Pigs. Credit: or titanium22. CC BY-SA 2.0

It used to be that nothing was certain but death and taxes. Now scientists have taken a step that casts some doubt on the former claim. In a study published Wednesday in Nature, Yale University researchers described a technology for restoring significant organ activity in pigs that had died of a cardiac arrest an hour before. The main goal for the work, they say, will be to improve the harvesting of organs for transplant, but the technique could also potentially be used to revive, for example, drowning victims.

Using a “device similar to a heart-lung machine” and a fluid containing the animals’ blood and a variety of drugs, including anticoagulants, the Yale team was able to observe several signs of restored function in the dead pigs, including heart contraction and some liver and kidney activity. Their hearts were contracting (though not fully beating), their organs were showing signs of metabolism, and genes responsible for cellular repair were active. “These cells are functioning after they should not be,” Nenad Sestan, a Yale University professor and one of the authors of the new study told The Wall Street Journal.

Tiếp tục đọc Frankenswine? No, but research on “zombie pigs” raises life-or-death ethics questions

Seeking Dronations: The Crowdfunded Drone War in Ukraine

August 25, 2022  Topic: Russia-Ukraine War  Region: Europe  Tags: Russia-Ukraine WarArmed DronesTurkish DronesCommercial DronesTB2 Drones

The increased accessibility and affordability of drone technology, coupled with innovations in banking and financial technologies like NFTs and cryptocurrency, have allowed the spirit of volunteerism to directly fund efforts to acquire weapons and arms.

by Andro Mathewson Lauren Kahn, The National Interest

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a strange new phenomenon: People from all over the world are crowdfunding purchases of materiel, such as commercial off-the-shelf drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and gifting them to foreign militaries.

For example, within seventy-two hours of launching “The People’s Bayraktar Project,” Ukrainian television presenter Serhiy Prytula surpassed his $15 million crowdfunding goal, instead receiving $20 million, enough to purchase three Turkish Bayraktar TB2 UAVs. The charity accepts donations from anyone anywhere in the world and takes bank transfers through cryptocurrency. 

Tiếp tục đọc “Seeking Dronations: The Crowdfunded Drone War in Ukraine”