Day: February 16, 2023

COMPLIANCE ETC: THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED – FEBRUARY 16

If you want to engage in a long-winded and frustration process, try doing 2 US State Department and Customs visa applications… From my, albeit limited, experience of US bureaucracy it seems to me that it is far worse than anything I saw in Europe…

With the first annual Carnivale celebrations due to start on Saturday, it is reported that over 30,000 police and security officials will ensure safety. Such is the scale of lost ID cards during such celebrations, it seems, that it has been necessary for the Tribunal Electoral department to institute a “lost & found” operation with an online portal to reunite users and their cards, without the need for a $35 replacement…

In what is not good publicity for a country trying to boost its tourism, El Pais in Spain has carried a feature about the fire at Cerro Patacón, Panama’s main landfill site, that has has caused a large cloud of toxic smoke that has reached the outskirts of the capital. A spokesman for the fire department is quoted as saying that it could take up to a week to extinguish the fire.

https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-02-15/un-incendio-en-el-mayor-vertedero-de-panama-genera-una-inmensa-nube-de-humo-toxico-que-roza-a-la-capital.html

The media reports today that, of the 66 migrants on the bus that crashed into a ravine (now said to have seen 40 die), perhaps surpringly, the majority (22) were Ecuadorians, with 16 Haitians and 11 Venezuelans making up the largest nationality groups.

16 FEBRUARY 2023

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HOW THE WEST MAY HAVE HELPED BUILD CHINA’S SPY BALLOONS

On 16 February, an article from Defense One reported that Chinese strategists and industry have worked for more than a decade on 21st Century applications — with some assistance from the West.  Many of the Chinese organisations that produce them are directly funded by China’s military industry. It says that US and European businesses have also played a role in advancing China’s aerostat industry going back for almost a decade.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2023/02/how-west-may-have-helped-build-chinas-spy-balloons/383029/

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RUSSIA’S MILITARY, MERCENARY AND CRIMINAL ENGAGEMENT IN AFRICA

On 16 February, this report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime says that Russia has rapidly increased its engagement in Africa in recent years, both politically and economically, as it seeks to expand its influence on the continent.  However, its activities in Africa are subject to controversy.  The report sheds light on the Wagner Group, a private military company rapidly becoming the most effective form of Russian engagement in Africa.  It has been accused of using whatever means necessary to achieve its aims, including criminal activity; and the US government recently designated Wagner as a ‘transnational criminal organization,’ allowing for broader sanctions against Wagner and its enablers.  The report shows that Wagner did not emerge in a vacuum, and that the group’s activities and characteristics reflect broader trends in the evolution of Russia’s oligarchs and organised crime groups, their respective relationships with the Russian state, and their activities in Africa.

https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/J-Stanyard-T-Vircoulon-J-Rademeyer-The-Grey-Zone-Russias-military-mercenary-and-criminal-engagement-in-Africa-GITOC-February-2023-.pdf

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