WASHINGTON: Republican US lawmakers on Sunday criticized President Joe Biden for waiting days to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated over the United States, accusing him of showing weakness toward China and initially trying to keep the breach of US airspace undisclosed.
A US Air Force fighter jet on Saturday shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, a week after it first entered US airspace near Alaska, triggering a dramatic spying saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the US military was able to collect “valuable” intelligence by studying the balloon, and that three other Chinese surveillance balloons had transited the United States during Donald Trump’s administration — a disclosure the Republican former president denied.
“We should have shot this balloon down over the Aleutian Islands. We should never have allowed it to transit the entire continental United States,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, referring to the chain of small islands that arc off the coast of mainland Alaska.
Cotton told the “Fox News Sunday” program that he believed Biden had waited to disclose the penetration of US airspace because he wanted to salvage Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned diplomatic trip to Beijing, which ultimately was postponed.
“I think part of it is the president’s reluctance to take any action that would be viewed as provocative or confrontational toward the Chinese communists,” Cotton added.
Biden said on Saturday he issued an order on Wednesday to down the balloon after it crossed into Montana, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to protect civilians from debris crashing to Earth from nearly twice the altitude of commercial air traffic.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said of the Republican criticisms: “they are premature and they are political.”
The Defense Department in the coming week will brief the Senate on the suspected Chinese spy balloon and Chinese surveillance, Schumer told a news conference on Sunday.
NUCLEAR MISSILE SITES
Republican Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the panel also was set to receive a briefing on the spy balloon this week, though the exact timing has not been determined.
Turner said the balloon traveled unhindered over sensitive US nuclear missile sites, and that he believed China was using it “to gain information on how to defeat the command and control of our nuclear weapons systems and our missile defense systems.”
“The president has allowed this to go across our most sensitive sites and wasn’t even going to tell the American public if you hadn’t broken the story,” Turner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “There was no attempt to notify Congress, no attempt to put together the Gang of Eight (a bipartisan group of congressional leaders). I think this administration lacks urgency.”
Republican US Senator Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the ABC News program “This Week” that he would ask administration officials what future preparations have been made to prevent such an incident.
Rubio also said China was trying to send a message that it could enter US airspace, adding that he doubted that the balloon’s debris would be of much intelligence value.
Trump on Sunday disputed Austin’s statement that Chinese government surveillance balloons transited the continental United States briefly three times during his presidency.
“China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did,” Trump wrote on social media.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” show, Trump’s former director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, also denied such balloon incidents.
China on Sunday condemned the US action against what Beijing called an airship used for meteorological and other scientific purposes that had strayed into US airspace “completely accidentally” — claims rejected by US officials.
“China had clearly asked the US to handle this properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The US had insisted on using force, obviously overreacting.”
Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon
https://arab.news/zsb86
Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon
- “China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did,” Trump wrote on social media
Protesters greet Netanyahu as he meets UK leader in London
- Sunak also raised Netanyahu's controversial judicial reforms
- Some women protesting outside Downing Street wore red robes and white caps inspired by “The Handmaid's Tale,” a novel and TV series set in a dystopian future
LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held talks with Benjamin Netanyahu in London on Friday as protesters shouting “Shame!” In Hebrew demonstrated against the Israeli leader’s right-wing policies and his plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
Netanyahu had to pass by hundreds of protesters waving Israeli flags and waving signs calling for the defense of Israeli democracy as he arrived at 10 Downing St. for talks that focused on the war in Ukraine and concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Sunak also raised Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reforms, which have sparked mass protests in Israel and beyond. One placard in London read: “We are Israelis and Jews living in the UK demonstrating against Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is leading a judicial coup turning Israel into a dictatorship.”
Some women protesting outside Downing Street wore red robes and white caps inspired by “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a novel and TV series set in a dystopian future. Similarly clad demonstrators have become fixtures of the mass protests roiling Israel.
Sunak “stressed the importance of upholding the democratic values that underpin our relationship, including in the proposed judicial reforms in Israel,” the British leader’s office said in an official readout of the meeting.
Netanyahu’s proposals would give his government more control over judicial appointments, weaken the Supreme Court by limiting judicial review of legislation and allow Parliament to overturn court decisions with a simple majority vote.
He arrived in London as protesters in Israel blocked roads and clashed with police. The planned judicial system overhaul have ignited the biggest protests in the country’s history amid rare dissent from people throughout Israeli society, including military reservists, navy veterans, high-tech businesspeople and former officials.
Netanyahu’s right-wing government has also been criticized for its hard-line policy toward Palestinians, including recent comments by a government minister who denied the existence of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.
Sunak “reiterated our support for two-state solution,” and Britain’s view that Israel’s West Bank settlements are illegal and ”contrary to the cause of peace,” spokesman Jamie Davies said.
“Israel is a vital international partner for the United Kingdom, and the prime minister was visiting London, and this was an important opportunity to talk about issues that matter to both countries, whether that’s the threat of Iran, Russia, new trade and investment … as well as peace and stability in the Middle East,” Davies said.
Netanyahu’s office said the two leaders discussed the rapidly advancing nuclear program of Israel’s archenemy, Iran, as well as “deepening strategic cooperation in security, intelligence and economic fields.”
As thousands of people took to the streets across Israel on Thursday, Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, defiantly pledged to proceed with the judicial overhaul, hours after his coalition passed a law making it harder to remove him from office.
Rights groups and Palestinians say Israel’s democratic ideals have long been tarnished by the country’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of lands the Palestinians seek for an independent state and the treatment of Palestinian Israeli citizens, who face discrimination in many spheres.
Netanyahu pushed back his departure to Britain until 4 a.m. Friday to deal with the political crisis.
Several hurt after man drives into pedestrians at German airport garage
- Injuries were considered mostly minor
BERLIN: A motorist drove into several pedestrians Friday in a parking garage at Cologne-Bonn Airport in western Germany and injured some of them slightly, police said.
A man allegedly drove straight at people inside the garage, but most were able to avoid him, German news agency dpa reported.
No one’s life was in danger, police said, and the injuries were considered mostly minor. The man also drove into several cars, dpa said.
The 57-year-old driver was detained and taken to the hospital. Police said there were indications he had mental health issues.
Two police officers also received slight injuries when the suspect alleged resisted his detention.
Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population
- Russia reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector for decades or even centuries.
Russia has reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.
London says they are a conventional form of ammunition, but President Vladimir Putin said the move showed NATO members were sending weapons with a “nuclear component” to Kyiv.
“The West is well aware of the negative consequences of using depleted uranium ammunition,” Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces of Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Friday.
He said data on the use of depleted uranium by the United States and is allies in the Balkans and Iraq showed serious and lasting negative impacts on local populations and the environment.
Ukraine’s agricultural industry could suffer “for decades, if not centuries, into the future,” he said.
Critics of the use of depleted uranium, such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, say the dust created by such weapons can be breathed in while munitions which miss their target can poison groundwater and soil.
Countries such as the United States and Britain say depleted uranium is a good tool for destroying a modern tank. Britain says in guidance that inhaling enough depleted uranium dust to cause injury would be difficult.
Russia’s defense ministry on Friday disputed those claims and said the use of depleted uranium shells, compared to Tungsten-based ammunition, “has no significant advantage” on the battlefield.
The Royal Society said in a report in 2002 that the risks to the kidney and other organs from the use of depleted uranium munitions are very low for most soldiers in the battlefield and for those living in the conflict area.
Russia is also known to produce uranium weapons along with around 20 other countries, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.
Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
- Spokesperson: Ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Friday said it was important to identify an object discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines, and said the ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters it was a positive sign that Denmark had invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the Baltic Sea pipelines.
“It’s certainly positive news when the owner of the pipeline is invited to take part in very important phases of the investigation,” Peskov said.
Last week, Danish authorities said a tubular object, protruding around 40 cm (16 inches) from the seabed and 10 cm in diameter, had been found during an inspection of the last remaining intact Nord Stream pipeline by its operator, Nord Stream 2 AG.
“It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act — apparently it is — and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent,” Peskov added.
Three of the four pipelines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas links were hit in a still-unexplained explosion last September.
Russia has, without evidence, blamed Britain and the United States for the blasts, while European investigators have not said who they believe was responsible.
Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
- Group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar
- Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus
YANGON: Myanmar authorities have arrested around 150 Rohingya suspected of trying to flee to Malaysia, an official said on Friday.
The group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar, the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The official did not specify why the group had been arrested, but the Muslim minority faces restrictions on traveling within Myanmar, where rights groups say they live in apartheid-like conditions.
“They were hiding nearby in hilly forest between two villages... We started arresting them since late last night after we got a tip-off,” the security source said.
According to initial reports, the group had traveled by boat from western Rakhine state and planned to travel on to Thailand and then Malaysia by road, the official said.
A number of non-Rohingya suspected of trafficking the group were also arrested, and police were looking for around 30 more people, according to the source.
A military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh with harrowing stories of murder, rape and arson.
Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus.
Widely viewed in Myanmar as interlopers from Bangladesh, Rohingya are denied citizenship — along with access to health care and education — and require permission to travel.
The arrests come days after the junta said it would begin welcoming back members of the minority living in Bangladesh as soon as next month in a pilot repatriation program.
The plan would see Myanmar “repatriate about 1,500 displaced persons,” state media on Friday quoted a senior border affairs official as saying.
The border official did not give a specific timetable and added Myanmar had “not received any response yet” to the plan.
The returning Rohingya would be placed in a “transit camp for a short period” before being resettled in 15 villages, the official said.
“For their safety and security, we have police stations near the 15 villages,” it added.
Thousands of Rohingya risk their lives each year making perilous journeys from camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.
Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has dismissed the Rohingya identity as “imaginary,” was head of the armed forces during the 2017 crackdown.
