#transatlantic partnership

[trendynewsnow]

G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Italy: Key Issues and Global Challenges

G7 Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Italy: A Diplomatic Showcase The picturesque Italian towns of Fiuggi and Anagni are poised to become the epicenter of international diplomacy as they host the G7 meeting of foreign ministers. This significant event marks the second G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting to take place in Italy in 2024 and is particularly noteworthy as it is the first summit since Donald…

[year2000electronics]

it's another day, so i'll intro another group of my ocs in escape from canvandro! welcome to gauss city, aka THE DIVORCE OF A LIFETIME. this is the biggest city in canvandro, and is currently run by mayor transmyth, but when he gets a little too goo-goo eyed at his ex-lover, the one pulling the strings kicks him out of office and has him replaced with his own ex-girlfriend! oh no!! blurbs under the cut, the characters are in order again

toti transmyth: he's like if you put jim carrey and the man you picture when you hear a transatlantic accent in a blender, and then also gave him bigass shoulder pads. sleazy in a charming way, charming in a sleazy way, totally self-obsessed, and HORRENDOUSLY head over heels still in love with his ex, toti is a man who desires to leave a legacy above all else, going larger-than-life with his ideas and getting caught up in the glitz and glamour of it all! if he can put on a show, he WILL! he's the current mayor of gauss city, and his tv broadcasts tend to supernaturally warm people up to him

pollyanna diamano: toti's ex girlfriend. long is her hair, short is her temper, gone is toti's dignity when he sees her... pollyanna saw how gauss city was kinda a terrible place to live because the previous mayor (before toti) was corrupt, so her and toti formed a business partnership to try and get into local government and fix the city! unfortunately, when push comes to shove, she wanted to make a difference, and toti wanted fame... and he chose fame. they broke it off, with pollyanna retiring to a tech repair shop she runs and trying not to think about how his stupid face is everywhere.

mayor diamano: pollyanna again, but this time being influenced by a mysterious benefactor's shadow magic! all of a sudden shes gone from wanting to make a real change to a prima donna who just cares about saving her own hide! how strange.

tevya von voltz: toti's pesky right hand. toti hates his stupid little ass but tevya is the only one willing to do toti's dirty work so they have a begrudging work relationship. mandy's girlfriend. gets fired and replaced after pollyanna becomes mayor because pollyanna also hates his little ass. (there's a person under that tv head it's just a helmet)

mandy cameron: toti's camera-mantis! (get it?) a little aloof with her head in the clouds, but she genuinely does mean well when it comes down to things! she wouldn't hurt a fly! tevya's girlfriend.

chad drivers: toti's 'creative director', but the mayor really hired him because he's a brick shithouse who can pack a punch. dumb as rocks.

chicago: the ULTIMATE robot bodyguard, made by mayor diamano to protect her in tevya's absence. very grumpy, your stereotypical little nerd guy, but trying VERY hard to seem scary and tough

lady arcana: the secret benefactor of gauss city! a trickster spirit who gains power off granting peoples' wishes, so she grants them with an asshole genie twist, corrupting people into becoming the sort of selfish greedy people that would benefit her the most. granted toti's wish until he got too annoying so she tricked pollyanna into taking the position instead

AND THATS IT! divorce

[slumberlandrecords]

Autocamper are back! This Friday marks the release of their new cassingle, Summertime / Ken Hom , available through the transatlantic partnership of Slumberland Records and Safe Suburban Home Records.

With buckets of melancholic charm and a cardigan collection that would make even Stephen Pastel blush, Autocamper are the perfect pop antidote to Manchester's predictable post-punk machismo. Summertime / Ken Hom is their new single, effortlessly capturing the jangle pop spirit of the '80s—without the C86 revisionism. Driven by a relentlessly melodic organ and a spare, scratchy guitar jangle, both tracks exemplify Autocamper's fresh and exciting UK-meets-NZ pop sound.

This new single serves as a teaser for Autocamper's highly anticipated debut album, scheduled for release in 2025.

Summertime is the first joint release from Oakland’s Slumberland Records and York’s Safe Suburban Home Records. The track is available worldwide on November 15th, with tapes shipping worldwide immediately from the label's Bandcamp pages.

[fibula-rasa]

Favorite New-to-me Films—March ‘24

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Forbidden Fruit (1921)

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C.B. DeMille and Jeanie MacPherson’s second swing at this modernized Cinderella story about overcoming a bad husband, now with eye-popping fantasy sequences designed by Natacha Rambova. [Gif sets incoming!]

Mary Maddock (Agnes Ayres) does seamstress work and takes in laundry to support her layabout, no-goodnik husband. Her wealthy clients (Kathlyn Williams & Theodore Roberts) hatch a scheme to use a social event to settle a business deal with handsome young entrepreneur Nelson Rogers (Forrest Stanley). Mary accepts the job to keep Rogers occupied, with the unintended consequence of the two falling in love. When Mary’s husband makes a surprise appearance, the jig is up. But, after her husband’s chicanery has deadly consequences, Mary and Rogers are free to live happily ever after. CW: a pet bird is killed.

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The Woman King (2022)

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Giving an epic treatment to fitting subject matter, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Maria Bello, and Dana Stevens tell the story of the Agojie, a real-life group of warriors from the kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa, and General Nanisca (Viola Davis), a fictional leader of the warriors. The Woman King has a creative approach to history, to which a lot of critical attention has been paid—it’s certainly worth seeking education on relevant historical topics. 

That said, it was a gutsy and risky proposition to tell a story tied into the Transatlantic slave trade focused entirely on the West African and Portuguese side for an American (and English speaking) audience. Also, as an avid fan of Xena: Warrior Princess and the Eddas/sagas of Iceland and Scandinavia, I appreciated the filmmakers taking a legendary approach to this location and time period. In its deliberately extra-historical engagement with history, The Woman King also brought to mind for me Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène‘s Ceddo (1971), which I highly recommend. (Obviously the films have wildly different tones/styles tho!) 

As you might imagine from the description, heavy CWs for violence (including SA), blood, and slavery.

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Why Change Your Wife? (1920)

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A month ago, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that I’d be putting not one but two DeMille movies on my new-to-me favorites list! I initially watched them as reference for the cosplay I mentioned in the last monthly round-up post, but ended up enjoying both! Often there are elements of DeMille’s films that hamper my ability to enjoy them fully, whether it’s goofy class politics (hello Saturday Night), racist depictions (hi The Woman God Forgot, which I also watched for the first time this past month), or that I simply rarely enjoy christian bible epics. 

That’s not to say Why Change Your Wife? is somehow perfect—it features pretty sexist attitudes. But, having learned a little bit about DeMille’s unconventional marriage, I see it less of a story of wives failing and more of a story about how two people who have a solid partnership can lose themselves when they lose each other. Here I’m referring to the first part of the film, before Swanson’s Beth and Meighan’s Robert get divorced. Beth isn’t being true to herself when she’s on her mental-improvement kick—there are sufficient details thrown in that show that she and Robert have drifted apart and she’s responding to it by morphing into a maiden aunt type. The film could’ve made Robert’s role in their marriage’s demise a little more overt, but I do think DeMille and screenwriters Olga Printzlau, Sada Cowan, and William DeMille must have been concerned about the American public’s response to a story that normalizes divorce in 1920. For context, we didn’t have no-fault divorce here in the US until the 1970s.

Anyway, why should you watch it? Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels offer fun and energetic characterizations as the two Mrs. Gordons, and they share a pretty wild fight scene. The costumes by Natacha Rambova are funky and interesting. The film features an absolutely adorable dog too! (If anyone recognizes the dog please LMK!) [Gif sets for this film are also on the way!]

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Intohimon vallassa (1947)

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Teuvo Tulio don’t miss. 

The heir to the biggest farm in the county, Aino (Regina Linnanheimo), is forced into an arranged marriage, but the man she really loves, Olavi (Kullervo Kalske), sticks around and becomes the town blacksmith. Years pass and Aino’s husband becomes an alcoholic and an abuser. Olavi keeps his distance as Aino’s marriage implodes in a particularly disturbing fashion. CW: domestic abuse, alcoholism, implied death of dog

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

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Look at me watching more than one movie this year that was made in this century! Anyways, I’ve been a turtle fan as long as I can remember (photographic evidence below) and I love that the comics have been re-adapted so well in the last 15 or so years for younger generations. (The 2012 show is very cute btw, worth checking out especially if you have kids.)

This take features a unique and kinetic animation style with an accessible story touching on what makes someone an outcast and how both adults and kids can navigate that. Mutant Mayhem features probably my new favorite depictions of April and of Splinter. Also, even though the non-turtle characters are almost all celebrity voice actors, the voice acting quality is very high.

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Montana Moon (1930)

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Sweet romantic story with comedic elements about a millionaire’s willful daughter (Joan Crawford) who, fleeing an awkward situation on a train ride with her family, runs into a cowboy (Johnny Mack Brown). The two quickly fall in love and are married, but the newlyweds face challenges when the differences in their lifestyles come into sharp relief. I love Crawford’s costuming and styling in this and her performance elevates the material. There are extended sequences with classic country-western music tho, so if that grates on you, you might want to take a pass on this one.

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Leda – The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko (1985)

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Yoko Asagiri is a young girl struggling to confess her feelings to the boy she likes. She decides to confess via a song she composed herself, but the song turns out to be a key to another world. Yoko teams up with a talking dog and a tiny warrior girl with a giant robot to fight the villainous Zell, who wants to use Yoko’s song to conquer her world. The animation and designs are top-notch as is the music. I personally enjoyed all of the Oz vibes suffused throughout the OVA.

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Tomatos Another Day (1934)

[letterboxd | imdb | Eastman House]

Also known as “It Never Happened,” this is ostensibly a short film about a woman carrying on an affair and said affair being discovered by her husband. What Tomatos Another Day actually is is a send up of early talkies conceived and executed by independent filmmaker James Sibley Watson Jr. and collaborator Alec Wilder. If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you probably already know that I love Watson’s Fall of the House of Usher (1928) [Gifs/Stills]. However, I haven’t seen much else of his work! Thankfully, Eastman House has preserved and digitized a couple of his films and I plan on watching more soon. The link above has the short film with an introduction and outtakes!

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Past Lives (2023)

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Past Lives is a quiet but emotionally-rich love story by Celine Song that spans decades but also a single eventful week. I loved the way that the story was structured and how much the film relied on thoughtful pauses to communicate complicated emotions. The actors, Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro, all put in great work here. If you haven’t seen it yet, but plan to watch it, prepare to cry a bit.

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The Mind Reader (1933)

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Warren William plays a carny with a different gimmick for every town in the midwest. When the Depression affects his take, he and his cohorts, Frank (Alan Jenkins) and Sam (Clarence Muse), come up with a new scheme: fortune telling. As Chandra the Great, the crew start to rake it in, but when Chandra falls for an upright citizen (Constance Cummings), the scheme and their freedom is put in jeopardy.

I’m not accustomed to William playing this particular brand of sleazebag, but he really kills it as Chandra/Chandler/Munro. I appreciated how creative and adventurous the cinematography and editing is—not an especially common trait for pre-code films. I also made some still sets for the film!

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Honorable Mention: Hard to Handle (1933) [letterboxd | imdb]

This film gets honorable mention because while I didn’t think it was particularly good, a few call outs are deserved. The bad: the plot was unnecessarily convoluted and the recurring sequences with fat people were iffy at best. The better: Ruth Donnelly shines as the comedically base mother of Mary Brian and she even gets to do a bit of physical comedy. Donnelly, Brian, and Cagney have a nice chemistry together throughout. In terms of costuming, the matching outfits of Brian and Donnelly are funny, but made funnier by the sheer quantity of mother-daughter ensembles they wear. The neutral: the film is packed with topical Depression-era references: notably Florida investment swindles and trends like dance marathons and the grapefruit diet. All-in-all, the filmmakers could have done less and achieved more.

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The only big post I completed this month was a massive undertaking: Lost, but Not Forgotten: Omar Khayyam / A Lover’s Oath and a timeline for the film’s production and release.

Otherwise, I made themed gif and still sets from:

Torture Garden (1967)

The Marriage Circle (1924)

Le Altre (1969)

The Mind Reader (1933)

As for April, the cosplay I mentioned should be up very soon. If I have the time, both Lost, but Not Forgotten and How’d They Do That should have new installments posted and I have a few movies/shows on my themed gif/still agenda.

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[usafphantom2]

RAF typhoons are sent to Poland for joint exercises before the Warsaw Security Forum

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/10/2023 - 16:00in Military

Four British Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighters were sent to Poland to conduct joint training exercises alongside allied aircraft from Poland, Spain and Italy.

The deployment will provide an opportunity for RAF pilots to practice air combat against different types of aircraft and develop tactics to exploit their weaknesses.

The Typhoons, which were sent to Poznan Air Base today, will remain in Poland for two weeks and will attack targets outside visual range, simulating several possible combat scenarios. They will be supported by a team of more than 50 RAF employees during the deployment.

It is just one of many joint exercises carried out with Polish forces, including the permanent sending of hundreds of troops from the United Kingdom to Poland, as part of NATO's commitment under Operation CABRIT.

The activity comes before the participation of UK Ministers in the Warsaw Security Forum this week. Defense Minister James Heappey and FCDO ministers Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Lord Ahmad will use the forum to emphasize the need to maintain support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia.

Earlier this year, the foreign ministers and defense ministers of the United Kingdom and Poland signed a strategic partnership on foreign policy, security and defense - emphasizing the commitment of both countries to European security and collective defense through NATO.

On Wednesday, James Heappey will visit the RAF personnel deployed with the Typhoons, as well as the troops deployed in eastern Poland operating the Sky Sabre surface-to-air missile system, strengthening Poland's air defenses near the border with Ukraine.

The Warsaw Security Forum focuses on transatlantic cooperation in response to common challenges, organized for the first time in 2014, bringing together ministers and senior officials from all over the defense to provide a forum to discuss the challenges faced by Central and Eastern Europe, and the international community in general.

The United Kingdom is the partner nation of this year's Warsaw security forum and the British Embassy in Warsaw worked closely with the Polish government and conference organizers to design a program that reflected the UK's objectives and views, as described in the Refresh 2023 Integrated Review and Defense Command Document 2023.

Tags: Military AviationEurofighter TyphoonNATO - North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationRAF - Royal Air Force/Royal Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[mariacallous]

Russia and China continue to intensify their economic, diplomatic, and military cooperation more than two years into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The deepening ties, to be cemented next month by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, seem to have given Russia partial relief from the impact of Western sanctions on its economy, which hit energy exports especially hard, and have provided a fillip to acquiring much-needed defense gear. But the growing relationship is a very imperfect solution to the international isolation Russia feels and China fears.

Just weeks before the Kremlin launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow and Beijing formally announced their “no limits” relationship, taking what had been a marriage of convenience and renewing their vows, this time with feeling. Ever since, bilateral trade and military cooperation between the two have exploded. 

Trade between Russia and China soared to a record $240 billion last year, and it kept growing in the first quarter of this year. Russia is sending oil and natural gas east, and getting in return cars, machinery, and some critical components to keep its defense industrial base humming. In particular, U.S. officials say, China is providing Russia with drone and missile engines as well as semiconductors that Russia needs for its defense industry. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week protested to his Chinese counterpart about Beijing’s role in propping up Moscow’s illegal war in Ukraine. 

But the growing military cooperation is not only a concern for the war in Ukraine. It also has implications for a potential U.S.-China conflict.

“What’s even more important is what Russia is having to give away in return” for what it’s getting from China, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “Russia is augmenting the military capabilities of China and our other adversaries.” 

Moscow, for years leery of providing Beijing with advanced military and aerospace technology, is now opening the vault, providing advanced air defense systems and reportedly some of the advanced technology used in China’s breakthrough new quiet submarines.

The closer trade and military ties go hand in hand with an invigorated diplomatic outreach. This month, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, where the two gushed about their creation of an alternative to the U.S.-led global order; Lavrov said enhancing ties with China was Russia’s top foreign-policy priority. When Putin travels to the country next month, it will mark his first foreign trip since his “reelection” in March. 

Both countries are at odds with the West, and especially the United States—Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and China for many reasons, not least its threat to take Taiwan by force—so they are seeking a safe harbor. 

In many ways, the intensified economic relationship between the two countries is a product of Western pressure. Russia, stung by ratcheted-up Western sanctions after its full-scale invasion, belatedly sought alternative markets to the lucrative one it lost in Europe. 

China, which by all accounts is preparing for a possible military solution to its decades-old Taiwan problem, is itself trying to prepare for a world of economic hurt. That is why in recent years Xi has not only looked for self-reliance in high-technology sectors threatened by Western trade restrictions, but has also increasingly warned the Chinese public of the need to brace for “extreme scenarios” if the country becomes an economic and financial pariah due to its own war of choice.

“They are creating an alternative order. Their convergence creates a new center of gravity around which others can gravitate when they are dissatisfied,” said Kendall-Taylor, who previously served as a U.S. intelligence officer. She said that the rejuvenated grouping, despite plenty of historical and modern-day differences, will make it harder for the United States and Europe to rally coalitions of countries to impose costs on aggressor states and enforce global rules.

Yet a Sino-Russian condominium won’t solve either Russia’s immediate problems or China’s long-term challenges.

For Russia, the biggest casualty of the war in Ukraine—besides nearly half a million Russian dead and wounded—is access to the European market for its energy exports, formerly the source of about 40 percent of Russia’s budget. Making lemonade out of the lemons that are the probable loss for good of its biggest and richest market, Russia intensified the pivot to the east that it began the first time it started a war with Ukraine and fell afoul of Western sanctions. Russian oil, largely blocked from the West, has flowed east. Russian gas, unwelcome now in Europe, is seeking a new home in China.

But the Chinese market is not at all a replacement for Russia’s lost markets elsewhere: It is smaller, brings fewer returns, and promises almost none of the advanced energy-sector technology Moscow needs to keep its fields pumping efficiently and its compressors working. 

“Asia is very much a consolation prize, and a poor one at that, compared to the loss of Europe,” said Craig Kennedy, an expert on Russia’s energy sector at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Russian oil that formerly traded in Europe at only a modest discount to global benchmarks, and which was part of an integrated energy system with Russian gas stations and retail sales, is now scuttling furtively around the seas looking for buyers who demand—and receive—big discounts. Russian oil exports to China have soared, replacing Saudi Arabia as Beijing’s biggest supplier. But it all comes at a discount, and China pockets the profitable bits by refining Russian crude at home. 

Ditto with Russian natural gas, which formerly heated Europe but now sits largely untapped in Siberia since Europe quickly swore off Russian gas due to Putin’s latest war. Plans between Russia and China to expand (discounted) gas sales, in the works for years, could amount to an additional 16 billion cubic meters a year—about 10 percent of what Russia formerly exported at a premium to Europe.

And whereas in the past, Russia could count on Europe for advanced technology to goose tired oil fields, tackle challenging frontier projects, and keep its Arctic gas liquefaction plants operational, it now can get almost none of that. Chinese technology can fill Russian gaps in drones, chips, and missiles, but it can’t make old oil fields young again or keep thousand-mile gas pipelines fitted with vital turbines for compression.

“Russia has to pivot, because it has no other choice,” Kennedy said. “But we’re only now beginning to see the full impacts” of the shift of Russia’s energy markets from west to east, he said.

And while the two countries talk up the broader importance of their growing trade ties, touting a near “de-dollarization” of bilateral trade, the reality is a lot messier. Despite years of half-hearted Chinese efforts to internationalize its currency and turn it into something resembling a reserve currency, the renminbi is still between the Canadian dollar and the British pound as far as cross-border trade goes—a distant rival to the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Even Russian firms doing more business with China are relying on expensive middlemen to figure out how to handle payments and transactions in a world where U.S. financial sanctions play whack-a-mole with banks that facilitate illicit trade. In some cases, it’s not just Russian exports that head east: Due to difficulties dealing with international financial sanctions, some Russian firms are decamping smelter and all to China.

Recent U.S. moves to deploy even more sanctions, nominally against Iran but targeting Chinese involvement, are a reminder of the reach of the dollar-denominated global financial system. Even the bottlenecks in Russian bilateral trade with China are reflective of Chinese banks’ unwillingness to risk opprobrium for what is, after all, a tertiary market. 

As China prepares its populace and economy to withstand what could be a battery of sanctions and financial isolation in the event of a war in the Pacific, the vaunted closer ties with Russia are actually a reminder of just how little economic and financial pull the new center of gravity really has.

[bbnewsin125]

Secretary Blinken will travel to France and Belgium next week to underscore our commitment to the NATO Alliance, strengthen transatlantic partnerships, and address global challenges.

#bbnewsinternational #corp #trendingnews #newsoftheday #newsupdates #newsmedia #newsdaily #newsroom #internationaleditor www.bbnewsin.com

[voskhozhdeniye]

Global economic contours are shifting inexorably towards the countries of global south. The U.S. and EU markets are less important to China, relatively speaking, than are the growth markets of the developing world. And for the developing world, China is a more important partner than most others. Trade and investment flows have been trending in this direction for some time already, aided by initiatives such as the BRI as well as the recently launched Asian free trade zone - the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The growing interlinking of Chinese capital markets with those of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are creating the new pipelines for capital flow between China and West Asia. The consolidation of a Eurasian economic sphere, including the energy-rich nations of West Asia, is creating new opportunities for value growth and flow. Trade growth is being complemented by capital circulation by way of investment flows denominated in national currencies. The ability to trade OPEC oil with national currencies is enabling these nations to evolve away from dependence on the USD. Economic decentering is one feature of the collective west’s displacement anxiety. The reality that its claimed military preponderance is more rhetoric than real brings a “hard power” edge to these anxieties.   These material factors are buttressed by deep rooted Manichaean frames in which racialised exceptionalism is ever-present. This is most pronounced in the Millenarian zealotry that underlies American exceptionalism. The idea of decentering is bad enough; it’s made all the worse as the new centres are found in the Orientals of the “near- and far east”.   Against this backdrop, we can expect the transatlantic neocons to intensify their attempts to hang on to what’s left of western colonial hegemony and American primacy. The neocon playbook has been to generate regional instability whenever and wherever it feels threatened. This “divide and conquer” strategy has played out in numerous “colour revolutions” and “coups” over the decades; in short, regime change operations aimed at installing pliable regimes.   Colour revolution risks across Eurasia are likely to intensify over the next few years. China’s President Xi was prescient last year when he warned Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members of these risks.   Additionally, preparations for proxy wars in Asia, borrowing from the Ukraine 2014-2022 playbook, are also likely to continue, as I have previously described. The Philippines is being groomed, as is Taiwan. As the US and NATO face defeat on the steppes of Ukraine, NATO has set its sights on becoming a global military force; and that means it will continue to seek ways of asserting a presence in Asia. Its attempt to secure a foothold in Japan was rebuffed by the French, but this is unlikely to be its last attempt to turn the “A” in NATO from meaning “Atlantic” to meaning “Asia”. The transatlantic neocons have been decentred, economically and geopolitically. Five centuries of colonial dominance, coupled with seven decades of American Primacy are coming to an end. This is doubtless a discomforting experience. Antonio Gramsci once observed: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Today, the monsters Gramsci spoke of are those that torment the collective west and its neocon political elite as they confront their anxieties of being displaced by a Multipolarity that is struggling its way forward. This is why the 2020s is the “decade of living dangerously”.

[ausetkmt]

‘Slavery was an atrocity,’ Prince Charles says as Barbados becomes a republic | The Independent

Prince Charles has acknowledged the “appalling atrocity of slavery”, describing it as something “which forever stains our history”, during the ceremony marking Barbados’ historic transition to a republic.

Prince Charles summed up the period when the UK was one of the leading players in the transatlantic slave trade as the “darkest days of our past”, but looking to the future said the “creation of this republic offers a new beginning”.

The prince will be head of state of many nations in the Caribbean when he becomes king and his words will resonate across the region.

Barbados’ ties with the British monarchy going back centuries were severed just after the clock struck midnight on Tuesday morning when the nation’s first president, Dame Sandra Mason, was sworn into office, replacing the Queen as head of state during a televised open-air ceremony in the capital Bridgetown.

In a message to the president and the people of Barbados, the Queen sent the new republic her “warmest good wishes for your happiness, peace and prosperity in the future” and praised the nation which has a “special place” in her heart for “its vibrant culture, its sporting prowess, and its natural beauty”.

The 95-year-old had been Barbados’ head of state since it became independent in 1966, and expressed happiness that the country will remain a part of the Commonwealth.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK and Barbados will remain “steadfast friends and allies” with “a partnership built to last”.

The heir to the throne watched the symbolic moment as the Queen’s standard was lowered for the last time and the presidential flag raised in its place at midnight local time on 30 November, the 55th anniversary of independence from Britain.

‘From the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude’

(Reuters)

Charles told guests including Barbados’ prime minister Mia Mottley and pop star Rihanna, who was named an ambassador for her home country Barbados in 2018, that: “The creation of this Republic offers a new beginning, but it also marks a point on a continuum, a milestone on the long road you have not only travelled, but which you have built.

“From the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude.

“Emancipation, self-government and independence were your way-points. Freedom, justice and self-determination have been your guides.

“Your long journey has brought you to this moment, not as your destination, but as a vantage point from which to survey a new horizon.”

His words echoed a speech he gave during a tour of west Africa in 2018 when, after visiting a site in Ghana where Africans were forced into a brutal and murderous regime of enslaved labour, he described the slave trade as an “indelible stain” on the world.

There have been planned protests in the run-up to the ceremony with activists in Barbados demanding an apology and reparations from the monarchy and UK government for slavery; in addition to this, campaigners have questioned Prince Charles’ involvement in tonight’s inauguration.

Previous monarchs supported or made money from the transportation and selling of people for profit during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Queen and new President of Barbados Dame Sandra Mason

(Getty Images)

Referring to the protests and disgruntlement aimed at the British monarchy, British High commissioner to Barbados Scott Furssedonn-Wood told The Independent: “This is obviously an independent country, a vibrant democracy of open society, freedom of the press and freedom of speech – so it’s good that there’s a lively debate and it’s right that people are able to express their opinions.

“It’s important, as the country makes its transition, that people talk about the things that matter to them, the things that they may be excited about but also the things that they may be angry and have concerns about.

“That’s how democracies work so people should be free to express those opinions, it’s a sign of a healthy debate.”

On the topic of reparations, however, and calls for the prince to apologise for the monarchy’s role in slavery, the commissioner was less explicit.

“The strength of feeling will be clear from the prince’s speech; it’s a feeling he’s expressed before and will continue to do. As an individual the prince for a very long time has been committed to inclusion, to fair societies, to opportunities for all in the UK and other places he’s been.

“This is not just him coming out with a phrase, this is something that he believes very passionately in himself – that you’ve got to acknowledge injustices where you see it but you’ve got to find practical ways of responding to the here and now and building a better future. He’s playing his part in that.

“It’s absolutely right that we express that deep sorry for that appalling atrocity of slavery and the unbelievable suffering that was caused; I can see that this still creates a very powerful sense of injustice here in the Caribbean and other parts of the world as well,” he said.

“We’ve got to acknowledge that and ensure people don’t forget what happened, that each generation of young people understand that aspect of the past so we ensure that modern slavery in all its forms can never happen again.

“The past was, in many ways, a very dark period and must never be repeated.”

[trendynewsnow]

The Implications of a Potential Trump Presidency for Germany and Europe

Germany, recognized as one of the United States’ closest allies, has been diligently preparing for the possibility of a second term under Donald Trump. Experts have long cautioned that Germany may need to enhance its defense strategies within both the European context and NATO, particularly as Trump promotes an “America First” agenda. In a recent discussion at the Aspen Institute, Thomas Erndl,…

[timesofinnovation]

In an ambitious move, Dutch Economy Minister Dirk Beljaarts has set forth plans to spearhead a 'coalition of the willing' within the European Union focused on developing the bloc's computer chip industry. This initiative comes in light of increasing global competition, especially from the United States and China, and aims to position Europe more strategically in the semiconductor sector. The announcement was made during a recent G7 industry ministers' meeting in Rome, where Beljaarts articulated the necessity for EU nations to collaborate on establishing production, assembly, and packaging facilities for semiconductor manufacturing. The Netherlands, recognized as a hub for advanced chip technology thanks to its leading firms like ASML, is paradigmatic of the industry’s potential. However, Beljaarts stressed that the success of this initiative hinges on the collaborative efforts of all EU member states. One of the critical goals of this coalition is to set the foundation for a robust semiconductor industry capable of competing on a global scale. To achieve this, the coalition will likely focus on enhancing research and development, boosting investment in manufacturing capabilities, and creating a supportive regulatory environment. With the EU's chip strategy already facing challenges—particularly following the departure of Thierry Breton, the former industry chief—the initiative aims to reinforce the continent’s position in the chip market, which is expected to reach critical importance in the coming years. The Lisbon-based ASML, a leading chip tool maker, serves as a significant asset to this initiative. Its technology is crucial for the production of advanced semiconductors, and the company currently supplies nearly all of the photolithography machines used to make chips worldwide. However, underlining the coalition's inclusivity, Beljaarts urged other EU nations to actively develop their own semiconductor capabilities, ensuring a balanced and collaborative growth within the region. During the same event, discussions also unfolded regarding potential collaborations with the United States. Beljaarts met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, exploring areas for synergistic efforts amidst projected U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment destined for China. The talks underscore the potential for transatlantic cooperation but clarified that the discussions pivoted around partnership opportunities rather than impediments due to regulations. The urgency for this initiative is underscored by the EU's strategic ambition to increase its share of the global semiconductor market to 20% by 2030, as laid out in the EU Chips Act, valued at €43 billion. This act emphasizes enhancing Europe's technological sovereignty and diminishes the reliance on foreign semiconductor sources. The coalition led by the Netherlands could serve as a catalyst in achieving these targets, allowing Europe to leverage its technological expertise and industrial base effectively. The broader implications of the Netherlands' leadership in this coalition are significant. By strengthening internal EU cooperation and capacity for chip production, the Netherlands not only contributes to the economic robustness of the EU but also positions itself as a critical player in a sector pivotal to the future of technology and digital innovation. This initiative could foster job creation, stimulate local economies across member states, and enhance Europe’s competitive edge in cutting-edge technologies. The time is ripe for Europe to capitalize on its existing resources and talents to redefine its place in the global semiconductor landscape. As the electronics industry increasingly grapples with supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions, a collaborative approach led by the Netherlands could be instrumental in establishing a resilient and prosperous semiconductor ecosystem within the EU. In conclusion, the Netherlands' initiative to form

a coalition aimed at advancing EU chip manufacturing signifies a crucial step towards achieving a self-sufficient and competitive semiconductor industry. This move navigates Europe away from dependency on global powers while fostering innovation and growth within a vital sector that underpins modern technology.

[usafphantom2]

NATO selects Boeing's E-7 Wedgetail to replace its E-3 AWACS

NSPA will acquire six AEW&C E-7A Wedgetail aircraft.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 11/15/2023 - 11:34am Military

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) announced its acquisition strategy for an initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (iAFSC) capability. Based on a U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) business, NSPA is taking steps to acquire 6 Wedgetail E-7A Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft manufactured by Boeing.

The current E-3 Sentry fleet of NATO's Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS), a key surveillance and control feature, is scheduled to be withdrawn around 2035. The iAFSC will provide an initial element to mitigate the risk of a gap in airborne surveillance and control capacity. The Wedgetail will be integrated, as a contributing element, to the general capacity system of the Alliance's Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) systems.

The chosen iAFSC acquisition strategy aims to meet the requirements defined by NATO's strategic commands and meet the operational needs of the Alliance and nations. The approach recognizes the benefits of economies of scale, standardization and interoperability arising from the multinational acquisition of ready-to-use military platforms. It also ensures a smooth transition from existing capacity to other development lines and to the future.

Through a rigorous evaluation process, NSPA, together with NATO and national experts, evaluated the industry's responses to Requests for Information (RFI) and Prices and Availability (P&A), as well as the capabilities of the companies identified in the NSPA Source Archive. This also involved defense industry research, including comparable AEW&C acquisition programs in Australia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Support Partnership Nations - (Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania and the United States) and NSPA concluded that the Boeing E-7A AEW&C Wedgetail is the only system currently known capable of fulfilling the essential operational tasks, requirements and key performance parameters of strategic commands and is available for delivery within the required time.

Wedgetail is expected to reach Initial Operational Capacity (IOC) in 2031.

Making the announcement during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), Stacy Cummings, Director General of NSPA, commented: “This announcement is a significant milestone in NATO's ongoing efforts to improve its readiness and capabilities in the coming years. NSPA's acquisition strategy of a single-source multinational solution, FMS, is set to provide a series of benefits that will strengthen the Alliance's ability to respond to evolving security challenges."

“ Surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft are crucial to NATO's collective defense and I welcome the Allies' commitment to investing in cutting-edge capabilities. By gathering resources, Allies can collectively buy and operate important assets that would be too expensive to be acquired by individual countries. This investment in cutting-edge technology shows the strength of transatlantic defense cooperation as we continue to adapt to a more unstable world,” said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General.

Tags: Military AviationAWACSBoeingBoeing E-7 WedgetailE-3 SentryNATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[mariacallous]

After a rocky start in 2021, U.S.-European relations have since gone from strength to strength, largely thanks to the unifying effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine. In recent months, however, this key partnership has been rocked by what is viewed in Europe as a resurgence of the “America First” economic policies that so bedeviled relations during the Trump administration.

Europe’s collective ire is directed toward U.S. President Joe Biden’s massive suite of inward investment policies—specifically, the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Together, these programs, which provide generous investment in infrastructure, green subsidies, and related tax breaks, threaten to lure foreign investment from Europe to the United States.

While this has been welcome news to many green energy advocates in the United States and elsewhere, it has caused increasingly public rifts with Europe. Critics believe the Biden administration’s inward investments constitute a new protectionism, one designed to place the United States first and everyone else a distant second. At the Davos World Economic Forum annual meeting in January, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared that “competition on net zero must be based on a level playing field,” and specifically raised concerns about both the United States’ green policy suite and China’s subsidy and restrictive market practices.

After some internal hand-wringing over whether the goal should be to get the Biden administration to back down or instead to keep pace with U.S. initiative, Europe has begun to marshal a tit-for-tat response to challenge and counter U.S. policy efforts with its proposed Green Deal Industrial Plan. This resurgence of economic nationalism within the transatlantic relationship is what has economists such as Adam Tooze so concerned about the IRA.

If the prevailing analyses of European security experts and international economists are anything to go by, the United States and Europe appear to be heading toward yet another round of transatlantic tensions with this latest rift over green investment. But a closer examination suggests there is a real opportunity to turn this rather conventional spat into an alliance-building effort that benefits overlooked peoples and places on both side of the Atlantic.

Collectively worth some $3.8 trillion, the United States’ “doubly remarkable” plans stand out not only for the eye-watering amount of investment, but also the way in which the funds are to be invested. The funds from these plans are to be spent largely on direct investments to underdeveloped areas, as part of a “just transition” to new green technologies and industries. The IRA, for example, targets spending on communities that have been historically disproportionately affected by pollution, as well as those whose workforce would benefit from inclusion in the growing green sector of the economy, such as those with high fossil fuel employment or those with higher than average unemployment rates. As U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in Dearborn, Michigan, “We expect to see dollars catalyze innovative investments across cities and towns that haven’t seen such investment in years.”

The work of revitalizing the long-struggling heartland industrial regions isn’t just a U.S. project, though; rather, it’s of vital importance on both sides of the Atlantic.

As the United States makes unprecedented investments in its industrial heartland, the U.K. government has pursued its own agenda to “level up” the country’s left-behind regions. The European Union has acted similarly, seeking to improve its regional structural adjustment and cohesion policies, whose main task is to support the economic well-being of regions whose development is lagging behind. The OECD is also developing road maps and inventories on successful regional transformations to inform policy decisions in this area.

Policymakers in both Europe and North America have come to understand that, in the words of economic geography professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, the “revenge of the places that don’t matter” has political consequences—not just locally, but for their countries’ domestic political institutions, international relations, and place in the global economy. By supporting firms, university spinouts, and new industries in heartland areas through the IRA and related programs, the United States believes it can help rebuild local economies and possibly reduce the likelihood of political disaffection. This in turn will make the United States a better partner in the global economy and the institutions that govern it. Much the same could be said about government programs to assist post-industrial communities in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Hungary, or Poland.

As such, debates over whether the IRA constitutes a new protectionism obscure a vital point: The economic revival of left-behind places is not a zero-sum game among allied nations. Neither is the commitment to developing new green industries and the supply chains and jobs that come with them. There is a path forward whereby the collective of democracies gets stronger both economically and politically by building new industries in underperforming regions and by working together as partners with shared democratic values. To succeed in revitalizing the industrial heartlands, the United States and Europe cannot work on the problem alone and at the expense of the other. Rather, a cooperative, transatlantic approach is essential for long-term success.

The goal here for the United States and Europe should not be to outrun each other, but to become jointly independent from supply chains originating in undemocratic regimes—and, in the process, to establish the transatlantic economic leadership of the global green transition. Viewed through this lens, and not the more typical frame of zero-sum conflict and protectionism, Europe and the United States can and should work together to make this a reality. Ironically, with its tit-for-tat response to the IRA, the European Union has inadvertently taken a first step toward the completion of a transatlantic space in which green investment in heartland manufacturing regions is prioritized.

To transform existing unilateral investments into an intentional transatlantic initiative, a few things have to happen. First, both partners need to leave behind any rhetorical hint of economic nationalism, and instead frame their respective policies as part of a joint effort to meet the challenge of climate change while prioritizing the needs of the left-behind places on both sides of the Atlantic. Second, both partners need to start talking to each other about these issues. Helpfully, a suitable institutional vehicle for this cooperation already exists: the new joint U.S.-European task force, created in the aftermath of the IRA’s passage. Third, compromise will be required. For its part, the Biden administration could send a constructive signal to its partners by eliminating domestic content provisions from the IRA and other recently approved investment programs.

Once such a space becomes a reality, it allows for “ally-shoring”—expanding co-production and strengthening supply chains with countries that share common values and beliefs in an open, rules-based trade and economic global order. The approach outlined above would open the door to market-driven ally-shoring, as firms respond to the new incentives in the transatlantic green investment space. Coordinated action by the United States and the European Union could fuel this process and encourage industry players to invest across both geographies, further strengthening the bonds of U.S.-European interdependence.

The transatlantic partnership has come a long way from the depths of despair and acrimony during the Trump years. It has proved resilient and adaptive when its core security bargain was called into question by Russian aggression. Yet the current fallout over the Biden administration’s industrial policy initiatives underscores the recurring fragility of consensus over the economic dimensions of the partnership. In every crisis, however, there is opportunity. If parties can work together and adopt a different framing, one that prioritizes common interest over competition, the conflict over the IRA could be transformed from a disturbing slide toward economic nationalism into a confident step toward a stronger alliance and greener, more equitable future for citizens on both sides of the Atlantic