Anti-Modi Kashmiri alliance wins majority of seats in local polls
(23 Dec 2020) An alliance of political parties in Indian-administered Kashmir opposed to India’s policies in the region has won a majority of seats in local elections, the first since New Delhi revoked the disputed region’s semi-autonomous status last year.
The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), which is pro-India but favours self-governance in Kashmir, won 112 of a total of 280 seats in District Development Council elections, which were held in a staggered eight-phase process from November 28 through December 19.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 74 seats. Independent candidates won 49 seats while India’s main opposition Congress party won 26 seats.
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Bangladesh ‘set to move’ new group of Rohingya to remote island
(27 Dec 2020) About 1,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a Muslim minority who fled neighbouring Myanmar to escape violence, will be moved to the flood-prone island in the next few days after Bangladesh relocated more than 1,600 earlier this month, two officials with the direct knowledge of the matter said.
“They will be moved to Chittagong first and then to Bhasan Char, depending on the high tide,” one of the officials said.
The officials declined to be named as the issue had not been made public.
Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the deputy Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said the relocation was voluntary.
“They will not be sent against their will.”
The UN has said it has not been allowed to carry out a technical and safety assessment of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal and was not involved in the transfer of refugees there.
Bangladesh says it is transferring only people who are willing to go and the move will ease chronic overcrowding in the Cox’s Bazar camps that are home to more than one million Rohingya. But refugees and humanitarian workers say some of the Rohingya have been coerced into going to the island, which emerged from the sea only 20 years ago.
Several attempts at repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar have failed after the refugees said they were too fearful of further violence to return.(SOURCE: REUTERS)
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Global arms race escalates with China becoming the second biggest exporter
In the last five years, the Chinese military industry has become the world’s second biggest arms manufacturer after the US, according to recent data.
While science and rational thinking have become dominant themes across the modern world, warlike human nature and global security concerns across all faiths and backgrounds are progressing at a faster pace, new data suggests.
According to a Swedish peace institute, the world’s arms manufacturing sector last year saw an 8.5 percent increase, reaching $361 billion in sales compared to 2018. The institute’s analysis is based on data gathered from the world’s top 25 arms sales companies.
Some of the information, that has been prepared by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), says that China, which remained isolated for several centuries until gradually opening up to the world in the 1950s onwards, has become the second biggest exporter of arms in the world. It now exceeds some powerful European nations and Russia, with a share of 16 percent among top 25 companies.
The US, the world’s biggest democracy, is still by far the top arms manufacturer across the globe, “accounting for 61 per cent of the combined arms sales of the top 25”, the report stated
China has surpassed some major European countries like the UK, France and Russia, the successor state to the former communist Soviet Union, which was in tight competition with the US in the arms races during the Cold War.
Among the top 25 arms companies that were reviewed, China is represented by four companies, garnering sales of $56.7 billion in 2019, while Russia has two firms with a net of $13.9 billion in the same year.
The US beats all others with combined sales of $221.2 billion last year.
The rise of Chinese arms
Experts think that China’s share of the global arms sector could be much higher than various research groups like the SIPRI estimate, because the authoritarian regime of the communist party-led country makes exact figures of sales in missile manufacturing and shipbuilding inaccessible.
Japan sets record military budget with stealth fighters, missiles
Japan aims to develop an advanced stealth fighter and longer-range missile amid concerns about China’s power.
(21-12-2020) Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government approved a ninth consecutive rise in military spending on Monday 21st Dec., to fund the development of an advanced stealth fighter and longer-range anti-ship missile to counter China’s growing military power.
The Ministry of Defence will get a record 5.34 trillion yen ($51.7bn) for the year starting in April, up 1.1 percent from this year. With Suga’s large majority in parliament, enactment of the budget is all but certain.
Suga is continuing the controversial military expansion pursued by his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, to give Japan’s forces new planes, missiles and aircraft carriers with greater range and potency against potential foes, including neighbouring China.
Japan’s Joint Staff revealed in a Tweet that aircraft were scrambled on December 18 in response to a suspected intrusion into its airspace over the Sea of Japan, bordering the Korean peninsula and Russia, and the Sea of Okhotsk, which borders Russia. It did not elaborate on the incident.
Japan is buying longer-range missiles and considering arming and training its military to strike distant land targets in China, North Korea and other parts of Asia.
A planned jet fighter, the first in three decades, is expected to cost around $40bn and be ready in the 2030s. That project, which will be led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with help from the US company Lockheed Martin, gets $706m in the new budget.
Japan will spend $323m to begin the development of a long-range anti-ship missile to defend the Okinawan island chain in its southwest.
Other big purchases include $628m for six Lockheed F-35 stealth fighters, including two short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) B variants that will operate off a converted helicopter carrier.
The military will also get $912m to build two compact warships that can operate with fewer sailors than conventional destroyers, easing pressure on a navy struggling to find recruits in an ageing population.
Japan also wants two new warships to carry powerful new Aegis air and ballistic missile defence radars that have much as three times the range of older models. The government has not yet estimated the cost of the plan, which replaces a project cancelled in June to construct two ground Aegis Ashore stations.
SOURCE : AL JAZEERA, REUTERS
Russia successfully tests hypersonic Zircon missile
(Fri. 11-Dec. 2020) The Russian Navy has successfully tested the anti-ship hypersonic Zircon missile, firing it from a frigate in the White Sea. The new weapon has been called a game-changer that could radically shift the naval balance of power. In a video published by the Ministry of Defense, a Zircon can be seen being launched from the Admiral Gorshkov, a modern warship commissioned in 2018. Aiming at the Chizha training ground, a shooting range in Arkhangelsk Region, it successfully flew the required 350km.
Flying at Mach 8 eight times the speed of sound it was the first test of the missile being aimed at a coastal target. In its two previous trials, the Zircon fired both times at sea targets. In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that the Zircon can reach a speed of around Mach 9, with the ability to hit enemies more than 1,000km away. It is the world’s first hypersonic sea-based cruise missile, and is due to enter service with the navy once testing is completed. On Saturday, a Russian nuclear submarine successfully completed testing of another missile, the Bulava, test-firing four for the first time ever. The Bulava is intended to be carried by the state-of-the-art Borel-class submarine, which can house 16 at the same time. (Source: RT News)
Brexit: UK completes separation from European Union
January 01, 2021 |The Financial Express
A new era has begun or the United Kingdom after it completed its formal separation from the European Union.
The UK stopped following EU rules at 23:00 GMT, as replacement arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security co-operation came into force.
Boris Johnson said the UK had “freedom in our hands” and the ability to do things “differently and better” now the long Brexit process was over.
But opponents of leaving the EU maintain the country will be worse off.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose ambition it is to take an independent Scotland back into the EU, tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.”
BBC Europe editor Katya Adler said there was a sense of relief in Brussels that the Brexit process was over, “but there is regret still at Brexit itself”.
UK ministers have warned there will be some disruption in the coming days and weeks, as new rules bed in and British firms come to terms with the changes. But officials have insisted new border systems are “ready to go”.
Under the new arrangements, UK manufacturers will have tariff-free access to the EU’s internal market, meaning there will be no import taxes on goods crossing between Britain and the continent. But it does mean more paperwork for businesses and people travelling to EU countries, while there is still uncertainty about what it will happen to banking and services.
The UK and Spain have also reached an agreement meaning the border between Gibraltar and Spain will remain open.
Biden picks Second Black Pentagon chief
US ‘President-elect’ Joe Biden has selected retired US Army General Lloyd Austin to run the Pentagon. The general could become the first Black defense secretary. Despite his high posts in the US Army, Austin gave almost no interviews and did not reveal his views on US foreign policy. As a nominee for Secretary of Defense, in a certain sense he is a “dark horse” and his policy, including on Russia, could come as a surprise for many.
Meanwhile, Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of research, in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, noted that despite the serious difference between the administration of the current and incoming US presidents, they share a stance on one issue, namely the Pentagon and the US defense budget. It took Biden a long time to pick the new Pentagon chief amid pressure from various groups of influence in Congress. Some 43% of US troops are represented by minorities. Meanwhile, in most cases they are under the command of White Americans. The African-American lobby is sure that a Black Pentagon chief could balance this situation.
Hypersonic wind tunnel to take India into elite group
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Hyderabad to inaugurate India’s first hypersonic wind tunnel a missile and aircraft testing facility so high-tech that only the US and Russia have them. In September, India entered an elite group in the field of hypersonics when the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) flew its Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV) at a speed of Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound, or two kilometres per second) for more than 22 seconds.
However, the HSTDV test was a leap into the blue, with the only assurance of success coming from previous computer simulations. Hereafter, with the DRDO possessing hypersonic wind tunnel facilities, future tests of hypersonic missiles, aircraft and engines would also have the comfort of prior physical testing in a wind tunnel. The new DRDO wind tunnel will be capable of simulating flight between Mach 5 to Mach 12. All flight above Mach 5-6 is regarded as hypersonic flight. Currently, the fastest fighter jets and cruise missiles travel at Mach 2.5 to Mach 3. The new wind tunnel will allow better preparation for flight-testing by physically duplicating the extreme environment of hypersonic flight in ground testing. This will allow the DRDO’s aerodynamicists to discover issues and problems and to iron them out before flight testing.
Wind tunnels are basically large tubes with a provision to blow air through them at very high speed. Moving air around a scaled-down model of the object being tested makes it seem like the object is flying, even though it actually remains stationary in the tunnel. Gauges installed at crucial points on the object being tested provide vital information about how air would flow over the object’s surfaces in actual flight. Designing and developing a hypersonic wind tunnel posed major construction challenges in the aero and thermo-mechanical fields. A source in the DRDO states: “It involved intricate engineering, demanded massive fabrication effort, utilized super-precision machining, involved precise erection of heavy equipment and had to satisfy a range of safety protocols. It was a totally indigenous effort and required working in synergy with Indian industries.”
Presently all missile and aircraft pre-flight testing is carried out in in the so-called Trisonic Wind Tunnel Facility that is operated by the at National Aerospace Laboratory, Bangalore. Since this can simulate object speeds only up to Mach 4, more sophisticated wind tunnels are needed for the DRDO’s hypersonic flight programmes.
DRDO sources say the new wind tunnel, which will be operated by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), will be invaluable in the configuration design of tactical missiles, designing of multi-stage vehicles, intake aerodynamics, aerodynamics of submunition warhead, stage separation studies for multi-stage rockets and aero-thermal design for re-entry vehicles.
Even supersonic cruise missiles and aircraft are vulnerable to interception, but launching a hypersonic object at a target leaves the enemy with very little time to react. It is estimated that a hypersonic Indian missile would strike a target anywhere in China in less than five minutes, while a Chinese hypersonic missile would strike targets in the US in under 14 minutes.
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Pentagon lost track of over HALF of ‘sensitive’ equipment
provided to Afghanistan’s military watchdog
(18 Dec, 2020) The US military has failed to keep track of assorted “sensitive” devices such as night-vision devices, surveillance systems, and other kit it provided to the Afghan government, a US watchdog has found.
The severe lack of accounting of the military toys provided to Kabul was exposed in a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
According to information ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] units submitted to CSTC-A, 19 of the 48 enhanced EUM-designated night-vision devices for which the ANDSF requested the US government’s approval for end-use changes in FY 2019 were captured by enemy forces, and 29 were recorded as destroyed, damaged, or lost.
SIGAR urged the Pentagon to change its monitoring procedures and make them more fitting for Afghanistan, where the US has waged its war for nearly 20 years. During the endless conflict, the US military has transferred more than $28 billion worth of military equipment to the Afghan government.
The eye-watering costs, as well as the thousands of soldiers’ lives lost, however, have not yielded any meaningful result for Washington or the Kabul government it backs. Despite years of fighting, their main opponent, the Taliban militant group, controls more than half of the country. While the US was ultimately forced to enter an uneasy peace deal with the group, medium-intensity fighting, as well as frequent terrorist attacks, persist in the war-torn country.
(Source: RT News)
Trump pardons of Blackwater contractors an ‘insult to justice’
By Jihan Abdalla | 25 Dec 2020
Washington, DC It took a drawn-out and complicated legal process for four employees of a private United States security firm to be convicted in the September 2007 killings of 14 Iraqi citizens in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. US prosecutors said the heavily armed Blackwater contractors used sniper weapons, machine guns and grenade launchers to indiscriminately fire at civilians in the crowded traffic circle, causing massive carnage and the killing of two children.
All four men, who are US army veterans, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
But in an instant, US President Donald Trump undid those measures when he pardoned Nicholas Slatten, Paul Alvin Slough, Evan Shawn Liberty and Dustin Laurent Heard earlier this week, in a move described by lawyers and human rights defenders as a miscarriage of justice.
“This pardon is an insult to justice and an insult to the victims who waited so many years to see some measure of justice,” Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.(SOURCE : AL JAZEERA News Agency)
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Deadly blast hits Yemen’s Aden airport as plane carrying new Cabinet lands
(30 Dec 2020) A large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday 30th Dec. 2020, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Saudi-backed cabinet landed here. Yemen’s Interior Ministry said least 26 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in the blast.
The source of the explosion was not immediately clear and no group claimed responsibility for attacking the airport. No one on the government plane was hurt. Hours after the attack, a second explosion was heard around Aden’s Maasheq presidential palace where the cabinet members including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, as well as the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, had been taken to safely, residents and local media said.
It was unclear what caused the second blast and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani blamed the attack on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, adding that all the members of the government were safe.
“We assure our great people that members of the government are fine, and we assure you that the cowardly terrorist attack by the Iran-supported Huthi militia will not deter us from carrying out our patriotic duty,” he said on Twitter.
The Houthis denied responsibility for the attack.(Source: Al Jazeera News Agency)
Horrified Lebanese shelter Syrian refugees after camp attack
By MEE and agencies | Date: 26 December 2020
A Syrian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was set on fire Saturday 23rd Dec. night following a fight between members of the camp and a local Lebanese family, state media reported. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, confirmed that a large fire had broken out in a camp in the Miniyeh region and said that some of the injured had been taken to hospital, but did not provide an exact number.
“The fire has spread to all the tented shelters” – made of plastic sheeting and wood – UNHCR spokesman Khaled Kabbara told AFP. The camp housed around 75 families, he said.
The National News Agency reported that the fire followed an “altercation” between a member of a Lebanese family and “Syrian workers”.
Other youths from the Lebanese family then “set fire to some of the refugees’ tents,” the NNA added.
The Lebanese Civil Defence force worked to control the blaze while the army and police were deployed to restore calm, according to the report. A security source told AFP that shots were heard, saying that the fight in the Bhanine area was sparked when Syrian workers demanded a wage which their employers refused to pay.
“Some families have fled the area out of fear because there were also sounds of explosions caused by household gas canisters blowing up,” Kabbara said.
Lebanon says it hosts some 1.5 million Syrians, including around one million registered as refugees with the United Nations.
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Hundreds of Nigerian Schoolboys released, local governor says
Hundreds of schoolboys who were kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria nearly a week ago have been released, a local official said late on Thursday 17 Dec. , prompting joy and relief for families that had been praying for the boys’ safe return.
Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify the figure and it was not immediately clear if all the boys who were kidnapped had been released.
Earlier, a presidential aide said the schoolboys had been freed, but it was unclear how many were released amid continuing uncertainty about how many were abducted from their all-boys school last Friday in Kankara, a town in Katsina state.
Masari said Nigeria security forces had cordoned off the area where the boys were being held and had been ordered not to fire their weapons. A security aide to the governor told the AFP news agency that 344 students were rescued and are in Zamfara undergoing checks. “We are grateful to God they have been released,” Ibrahim Katsina said.
The students were kidnapped from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara. In an audio recording, a man identifying himself as the leader of Boko Haram claimed that the armed group was responsible for the abduction.(Source:(Al Jazeera News Agency)
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