China and India together account for close to 40 per cent of the global population. They are among the three largest economies -- on a purchasing power parity or PPP basis -- in the world, and are the two fastest growing emerging economies in the world. They are also the two countries that will most likely be the world’s largest hubs for manufacturing biological drugs. It’s been evident for a decade now that biological drugs are the future of medicine. (A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biologic(al) medical product or a biological or a biologic, Wikipedia says is "any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesised from biological sources -- therefore different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals -- they include vaccines, blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, living cells or tissues, recombinant therapeutic protein, and living cells used in cell therapy).23 January 2018
The future belongs to biopharma. Can India catch up with China?
China and India together account for close to 40 per cent of the global population. They are among the three largest economies -- on a purchasing power parity or PPP basis -- in the world, and are the two fastest growing emerging economies in the world. They are also the two countries that will most likely be the world’s largest hubs for manufacturing biological drugs. It’s been evident for a decade now that biological drugs are the future of medicine. (A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biologic(al) medical product or a biological or a biologic, Wikipedia says is "any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesised from biological sources -- therefore different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals -- they include vaccines, blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, living cells or tissues, recombinant therapeutic protein, and living cells used in cell therapy).Five months on, understanding Doklam ‘disengagement’, a few other issues
On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a clarification on Doklam: “It may be recalled that last year, the faceoff situation that had arisen in the Doklam region was resolved following diplomatic discussions between India and China, based on which both sides arrived at an understanding for the disengagement of their border personnel at the faceoff site.” The careful choice of words echoed the Ministry’s statement issued on August 28, 2017, when the “disengagement” ended the 73-day face-off in the Dolam plateau of Doklam area.‘China pursuing missile defenses; Indian nukes are main worry’
By DOUG TSURUOKA EDITOR AT LARGE
India conducted a successful test of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a nuclear-capable Agni-5, on Thursday, underscoring a potential threat to China as well as Pakistan. China is also within range of nuclear-armed North Korean missiles and Japan is mulling whether it should develop similar capabilities. But there has been surprisingly little focus on Chinese efforts to develop a missile defense against these threats.A Visit to One of China’s First Nuclear Weapons Plants
Chris Buckley and Adam Wu
China — Among the yak herds and Tibetan Buddhism prayer flags dotting the windswept highlands of northwestern China stand the ruins of a remote, hidden city that vanished from the maps in 1958. The decaying clusters of workshops, bunkers and dormitories are remnants of Plant 221, also known as China’s Los Alamos. Here, on a mountain-high grassland called Jinyintan in Qinghai Province, thousands of Tibetan and Mongolian herders were expelled to create a secret town where a nuclear arsenal was built to defend Mao Zedong’s revolution. “It was totally secret, you needed an entry pass,” said Pengcuo Zhuoma, 56, a ruddy-faced ethnic Mongolian herder living next to an abandoned nuclear workshop, whose family once supplied meat and milk to the scientists. “Your mouth was clamped shut so you couldn’t talk about it.”
How China Infiltrated U.S. Classrooms
Last year, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte made an announcement to great fanfare: The university would soon open a branch of the Confucius Institute, the Chinese government-funded educational institutions that teach Chinese language, culture and history. The Confucius Institute would “help students be better equipped to succeed in an increasingly globalized world,” says Nancy Gutierrez, UNC Charlotte’s dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and “broaden the University’s outreach and support for language instruction and cultural opportunities in the Charlotte community,” according to a press release.MAKE CHINA GREAT AGAIN: COMMUNIST PARTY SEEKS TO SEIZE ‘HISTORIC’ MOMENT TO RESHAPE WORLD ORDER
Nectar Gan
The world is in chaos, giving the Communist Party a “historic opportunity” to make China great again and reshape the world order – at least that was the message the party sought to drive home in a high-profile opinion piece in its flagship newspaper this week. needed China so much as it does now,” a commentary on Monday’s front page of People’s Daily asserted.
The world has never focused on China so much and needed China so much as it does now
The 5,500-word article is the latest rallying call for the country to unite around President Xi Jinping – its most powerful leader in decades – to rejuvenate China and achieve its global aspirations. Under Xi, Beijing has become more confident than ever in how it sees itself in the world. It has repeatedly vowed to take on more global responsibility and provide a “China solution” to the world’s woes, at a time when the United States under President Donald Trump is retreating from its global leadership role and Europe is distracted by Brexit.
Resource-hungry China is in overdrive as it wages water wars by stealth
Brahma Chellaney
China’s hyperactive dam building is a reminder that, while the international attention remains on its recidivist activities in the South China Sea’s disputed waters, it is also focusing quietly on other waters – of rivers that originate in Chinese-controlled territory like Tibet and flow to other countries. No country in history has built more dams than China. In fact, China today boasts more dams than the rest of the world combined. As part of its broader strategy to corner natural resources, China’s new obsession is freshwater, a life-creating and life-supporting resource whose growing shortages are casting a cloud over Asia’s economic future. Dams are integral to this strategy, although they have wreaked havoc on the natural ecosystems.5 ways the Fourth Industrial Revolution transformed 2017 (and 5 ways it did not)
Nicholas Davis, Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen,
In a fast-paced world it can be difficult to see the big changes even as they unfold in front of us. Looking back at 2017, in what ways did emerging technologies significantly impact the world in the past 12 months? We found five signposts indicating that the Fourth Industrial Revolution indeed transformed our lives and societies in 2017 — and five areas where transformations are yet to come.
1. Ethics: addressing biases and assumptions in technologies
President Trump's New Defense Strategy Is a Return to the Cold War
By W.J. HENNIGAN
President Donald Trump is bracing the Pentagon for a long-term, strategic competition with the world’s major powers that puts the U.S. military on a Cold War footing with Russia and China for the foreseeable future, the administration said on Friday. The National Defense Strategy, set to be rolled out by Defense Secretary James Mattis at John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, directs the U.S. government to engage in a multi-year build-up of the military involving more troops, more weapons and stronger foreign alliances. he document, which serves as the Administration’s roadmap for global security, says China and Russia aim to upend the global hierarchy that the United States has sat atop of since World War II. The strategy serves as the latest sign the Administration wants to pivot from the morass of violence and counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East to intensify great power competitions in the western and eastern hemispheres.
Tracking Global Terrorism In 2018
In some ways "the global jihadist movement" is a misleading phrase. Rather than the monolithic threat it describes, jihadism more closely resembles a worldwide insurgency with two competing standard-bearers: al Qaeda and the Islamic State. To make matters more complicated, grassroots extremists have been known to take inspiration from each group's ideology - and, in some cases, both. This complex network of international organizations, local militancies and individual adherents cannot be dismantled by simply killing its members and leaders one by one. Instead, governments around the globe will have to split off local groups from the Islamic State and al Qaeda ideologies they have chosen to adopt and tackle them separately using the principles of counterinsurgency if the jihadist movement is to be eradicated once and for all.
Al Qaeda: Surviving Under Pressure
Really? We’re Gonna Nuke Russia for a Cyberattack?
By GEORGE PERKOVICH
The front page of Tuesday’s New York Times contained an alarming headline: “Pentagon Suggests Countering Devastating Cyberattacks With Nuclear Arms.” The article, by David Sanger and William Broad, reported on a leaked draft of the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, which determines what the role of nuclear weapons should be. This draft departs from previous posture reviews by broadening the range of attacks that could trigger a massive U.S. retaliation, including with nuclear weapons.
Containing Russia, Again
With each passing week, the evidence of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election—and in U.S. politics and society more generally—grows. Since at least 2014, in an effort to influence the election and undermine confidence in U.S. democracy, Russia has hacked private American citizens’ and organizations’ computers to steal information; released that information in ways designed to affect electoral outcomes and divide Americans; planted and disseminated disinformation in U.S. social media, through its own state-funded and -controlled media networks and by deploying tens of thousands of bloggers and bots; cooperated with Americans, possibly including members of Donald Trump’s campaign, to discredit Trump’s opponent in the election; and probed election-related computer systems in multiple states. We will never know for certain whether Russia’s intervention changed the outcome of the 2016 election. The point is that it tried.
Inside a European Center to Combat Russia’s Hybrid Warfare
HELSINKI — Located in an unassuming office building filled with boardrooms, lecture halls, and projectors in the Finnish capital, a new entity under the joint auspices of the European Union and NATO was founded with a herculean mission. Tasked with a 1.5 million euro budget, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats was created to find new ways to defend against hybrid warfare: the blending of diplomacy, politics, media, cyberspace, and military force to destabilize and undermine an opponent’s government.Age of Ignorance
Charles Simic
Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit. Warming, Water Crisis, Then Unrest: How Iran Fits an Alarming Patter
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran, has diminished by nearly 90 percent since the early 1970s. In each country, in different ways, a water crisis has triggered some combination of civil unrest, mass migration, insurgency or even full-scale war. Protestors in Tehran on Jan. 5. “Water is not going to bring down the government,” one analyst said. “But it’s a component — in some towns, a significant component — of grievances and frustrations.” In the era of climate change, their experiences hold lessons for a great many other countries. The World Resources Institute warned this month of the rise of water stress globally, “with 33 countries projected to face extremely high stress in 2040.”A Tough National Defense Strategy
By MARK CANCIAN
The National Defense Strategy, released this morning, may be the single most important document penned by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. It encapsulates the Trump Administration’s defense policies in one place for the first time and provides guidance for the 2019 defense budget, to be released in a few weeks. That budget will mark the administration’s first chance to shape the defense budget from the beginning and will set the stage for the rest of the Trump Administration. Mark Cancian, who used to build defense budgets at the Office of Management and Budget and now works for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, got a detailed briefing yesterday at the Pentagon about the NDS. (Hint: Check the last paragraph.) He offers our readers this exclusive look inside the strategy. Read on! The Editor.Infographic Of The Day: The 10 Companies That Dominate The Global Arms Trade
The world puts $1.69 trillion towards military expenditures per year, and about $375 billion of that goes towards buying arms specifically.Whether it is guns, tanks, jets, missiles, or ships that are on your shopping list, in the international arms community, there is a supplier for any weapon your country desires.Artificial Intelligence: the impact on employment and the workforce
Although Artificial Intelligence dramatically improves our world in many ways, there are notable concerns regarding the forthcoming impact of A.I. on employment and the workforce. There are predictions talking about millions of unemployed people in the next decades — primarily due to the impact of Intelligent Automation and A.I. systems. In any case, the entire socioeconomic system is entering a phase of accelerating transformation: markets, businesses, education, government, social welfare and employment models will be severely impacted.Future shocks: 10 emerging risks that threaten our world
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, we asked ourselves one question over and over again: why didn’t we see it coming? It rocked the global economy and threatened to destroy the financial systems that we rely on. Ten years on, some countries are still picking up the pieces. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2018 says that, in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, this type of shock may become more likely.Four new ‘superpowers’ changing our world
Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer, VMware Inc.
The term ‘superpowers’ conjures an image of major nations shaping the course of global history. But in the digital era, I believe it’s time we expanded that definition to include four extraordinary technological superpowers that promise to wield as much influence over the next 20 years as any nation state: mobile technology, the cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT).Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble
The sequence of words is meaningless: a random array strung together by an algorithm let loose in an English dictionary. What makes them valuable is that they’ve been generated exclusively for me, by a software tool called MetaMask. In the lingo of cryptography, they’re known as my seed phrase. They might read like an incoherent stream of consciousness, but these words can be transformed into a key that unlocks a digital bank account, or even an online identity. It just takes a few more steps. On the screen, I’m instructed to keep my seed phrase secure: Write it down, or keep it in a secure place on your computer. I scribble the 12 words onto a notepad, click a button and my seed phrase is transformed into a string of 64 seemingly patternless characters:
From CES: The sea is alive with cheap, powerful robots — and that will be dangerous
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To walk the halls at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is to be bombarded by the most cloying vision of the future. Robots that dance in sequence! Segway inspired suitcases that walk behind harried travelers! Virtual reality goggles that show tiny imaginary battles over geodoes! Amidst the audio-visual assault of the show floor, there was a trend in consumer robotics that I think is worth following: underwater robots are here, and plentiful, and will likely only get better and cheaper in the years to come. Some of the advancement in underwater robotics will be custom-built for military clients, like the Boeing Echo Seeker. Other sea robots will likely have dual-use bodies, like whatever underwater scout comes from the early tests of the MantaDroid that I wrote about in a prior piece.Congressional budget skirmishes won’t halt cyber issues
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Worries that the government may shut down Friday at midnight have dominated the airwaves, but everything around Washington hasn’t been mired in deadlock. Federal agencies’ cyberspace policies and posture have seen a lot of activity in the past week, and there will be ramifications regardless of whether Congress manages to avert a Jan. 19 shutdown. Here’s a roundup of the biggest cyber stories: Kaspersky filed a preliminary injunction to counter DHS ban: Kaspersky Lab filed a preliminary injunction in U.S. federal court on Jan. 17, 2018, over the Department of Homeland Security’s binding operational directive banning the product’s use in government agencies.Discovered: New Malware Espionage Campaign Infecting Thousands Around the World
Electronic Frontier Foundation
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and mobile security company Lookout have uncovered a new malware espionage campaign infecting thousands of people in more than 20 countries. Hundreds of gigabytes of data has been stolen, primarily through mobile devices compromised by fake secure messaging clients.The trojanized apps, including Signal and WhatsApp, function like the legitimate apps and send and receive messages normally. However, the fake apps also allow the attackers to take photos, retrieve location information, capture audio, and more.
Why mobiles could be key to solving humanitarian crises
Elaine Weidman-Grunewald
As the months of 2017 went by it became clear that the scale of humanitarian disasters was outpacing the international community’s ability to respond. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are some 130 million people globally in need of humanitarian assistance. Devastating storms in the Caribbean and protracted conflicts in countries such as Yemen, Iraq, Syria and South Sudan means need for support has never been greater. A combination of innovative thinking and greater corporate engagement will be game-changers in our ability to care for the world’s most vulnerable people in the years ahead.
Data that enables rapid response
22 January 2018
AO 2018
AO 2018
--- Maj Gen PK Mallick, VSM (Retd)
Australian Open (AO) Tennis tournament has reached the second week. Men have been separated from the boys as also women from the girls. Barring some upsets which are normal, more familiar faces are there in the second week for the real battles.
As in recent times the new balls failed to impress. The most touted world number four German A. Zverev was shown the door by the rising young Korean H. Chung in five sets, last in 6-0 ! The German’s miserable run in grand slam tournaments continues. With all his potential he has only one grand slam last 16 in Wimbledon to show. The 6ft 6 inches tall German has all the weapons in his arsenal : a good serve, solid ground strokes, fluent in both flanks specially in his double handed back hand , volleys well, can slice. His mental strength most certainly comes into question, specially after his capitulation at love in fifth set. He was booed off the court as he joins bagel club. More importantly he was slated to meet Roger in semis. And he, amongst very few, has Federer’s number! I am not complaining!
Another young Canadian Shapovalov created stir in last US Open. Where was he this time? Shapovalov fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (4), 5-7 to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round. A young coloured TIAFOE Frances of USA took Roger Federer to five sets in US Open last year and gave him a mighty scare. This year he was dumped out in the first round by Del Potro. The thin hard hitting Rusian teen ager A. Rublev did his rising reputation no harm when he went down fighting and hitting to baby Federer in a close four set match.
The last ATP year end Masters Champion, the Bulgarian G. Dimitrov popularly known as baby Federer because of his similar style has now come out of the shadows of the big man, it seems. The way he has taken out A. Rublev and the mercurial but volatile Aussie N. Kyrgios in a very close four setter, three sets went to tie breaks, augers well for him. He has all the weapons in his bag : a superb service, a powerful one handed back hand, solid ground strokes, slices, ability to change the game and supreme fitness. His next opponent is the Brit K Edmond, who? Potential semifinals with Rafa awaits.
Rafa came to AO 18 without any preparatory tournament. But that has not shown in his game. He is pounding his opponents down with his customary brutal top spin ground strokes. With a sleeve less shirt he has his female fans swooning and opponents fearing his bulging biceps. Today the diminutive 5 ft 7 inches Argentine D. Schwartzman put him under test. Rafa won in four sets, but he made some uncharacteristic unforced errors which will come down.
In the quarterfinals he meets the 6ft 6 inches hard serving powerful Cilic from Croatia. Cilic is only four of the surviving players in this AO 18 with a grand slam trophy. No guess for naming the other three. Guess the number of grand slams the three have got? It is a whopping number, 47. Cilic was the last Wimbledon finalist. He has the game to trouble Rafa, point is has he that will power and believe? Today Rafa was down 0-40 on his serve, nonchalantly he won next five points to win that game. Again no point for guessing which side I will be rooting for. I do not want the gap between the grand slam titles of Rafa and Roger to narrow down!
Nextgen Korean H. Chung awaits Novac Djokovic. Novac is coming back from an injury break. You can see lot of work has been done on him led by Agassi. He has a modified serve action, has added some muscles specially on his legs, his elasticity and ground strokes remain potent. Point is can he survive even he wins the next match against the rising Australian, the fifth seeded Thiem. There is no denying the pedigree of Novac, but even Novac possibly cannot beat the heroics of Roger and Rafa of last year’s AO. We will see.
Roger’s next opponent in round of 16 is a journeyman M. Fucsovics of Hungary. Did you hear his name earlier? He is a smart player, has an all round game, has been a junior champion, will come out swinging freely as he has nothing to lose. But I can’t see him troubling Roger as he does not have some big weapon. Rogers will probably meet the powerful Czech T. Berdych, whom he did beat in Wimbledon semis in a close fought match. But for me Berdych has done a great favour to Roger by taking out the beanpole Argentine Del Potro in straight sets. Del Potro defeated Roger in US Open, had almost beaten Roger in Federer’s backyard Bassel in a close fought final. In present form Federer should win against Berdych, the head to head statistic also demand that. Then either Thiem or Djoker will be standing across the net in the semis.
Roger has not lost a set. He is playing like only he can play. My worry is: some times he loses concentration or something happens and he gets broken. The it becomes very difficult to get back as the other player now knows that the great man is vulnerable. In 2017 year ending ATP Masters Roger was playing like a king, won all his group matches. In the semis his opponent was the Belgian Goffin. The pint sized Belgian has a twinkle feet, has all the shots in the game and was playing well. But Roger was providing a masterclass tennis lesson and won the first set easily. When we were thinking of the finals, all of a sudden Roger shanked couple of shots, netted some easy volleys and was broken. Goffin played a match of his life and did not allow Roger to come back. Where is Goffin now? Do you see him as a grand slam champion?
I am a hopeless fan of Roger, like millions of them world wide. Time is not on his side. We all want to enjoy the show he puts in till it lasts, May some more grand slams come to his basket. Sorry Rafa, I can’t help. You are surely the next best.
The way the German A Kerber is playing I don't see any other women to win AO 18.
Well, did I predict prematurely? Today morning the thin affable Hsieth from Taiwan was leading Kerber 6- 4 and making the only surviving grand slam winner un the women’s draw run around the court like a maniac. At 4-5 Kerber was serving to stay in the match.You don’t become world number 1 and grand slam winner just like that. Kerber held on grimly, her first serve percentage was in high 80s, she broke Hsieth and won the second set 7-5. After that the superior speed, strength, stamina of Kerber held sway. Hsieth known more as a doubles specialist physically could not cope up with those legs of German machins and lost gallantly. Kerber remains on coursr for AO 18 Women’s Champion.
Meanwhile my single handed backhand has improved. It has strated crossing the service line. I shall inform all when my backhand cross court reaches the base line. Till that time I keep watching backhands of Roger, Dimitrov, Thiem, Gasquet not to forget Stan the man.
What’s Next for India’s Space Program?
By Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan
By all accounts, India’s space program had a stellar 2017. That was capped with its latest launch last Friday of India’s hundredth satellites, along with 30 other satellites, on board its workhorse space rocket: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40). Almost a year ago, in February 2017, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had launched 104 satellites on a single PSLV rocket, a world record. Last Friday’s launch included a Cartosat-2 earth observation satellite, along with 30 other micro- and nano-satellites from six different countries. These achievements have been warmly praised by India’s leaders, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting his congratulations to the ISRO.India Tests Ballistic Missile, Posing New Threat to China
By KAI SCHULTZ and HARI KUMAR
NEW DELHI — India tested a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons on Thursday, paving the way for membership to a small list of countries with access to intercontinental missiles and putting most of China in its reach.The ballistic missile, called Agni 5, was launched from Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha State in eastern India on Thursday morning, traveling for around 19 minutes and 3,000 miles. In a statement, the Indian Ministry of Defense said that all objectives of the mission had been “successfully met.” The firing of the Agni-5 comes months after the official end of a standoffbetween China and India over a remote sliver of land in the Himalayas, a squabble that lasted for more than two months and that was one of the worst border disputes between the countries in 30 years. The launch also comes during a tense period in India’s troubled relationship with Pakistan, its nuclear-armed neighbor.India’s missing middle class
THE arrival of T.N. Srinath into the middle class will take place in style, atop a new Honda Activa 4G scooter. Fed up with Mumbai’s crowded commuter trains, the 28-year-old insurance clerk will become the first person in his family to own a motor vehicle. Easy credit means the 64,000 rupees ($1,000) he is paying a dealership in central Mumbai will be spread over two years. But the cost will still gobble up over a tenth of his salary. It will be much dearer than a train pass, he says, with pride.How ISIS’ Strategy Is Evolving
By Michael P. Dempsey
Over the course of 2017, the Islamic State (or ISIS) suffered defeat after devastating defeat at the hands of the United States and its allies, culminating in the seizure last October of the group’s declared capital of Raqqa, Syria. As of today, the group controls no major population center in either Iraq or Syria. Yet this does not mean that ISIS no longer poses a significant danger. With the end of the physical caliphate, ISIS’ tactics are evolving. It is more and more likely to avoid major battlefield engagements and instead resort to terrorist attacks in the Middle East, other conflict zones, and the West. U.S. policy needs to change quickly to meet the evolving threat, both in terms of its operations in the region and of its counterterrorism priorities at home.
The Pakistan Problem: Why America Can't Easily Cut Ties with Islamabad
Last week brought a new low for the U.S.-Pakistan relationship that began with a stormy tweet message from the U.S. president, citing Pakistan’s deceitfulness in fighting terrorism. Following the tweet, the United States unveiled a string of measures that made a clear distinction about how the Trump administration no longer views Pakistan as an imperfect friend, but as a clever enemy. The new measures included a suspension of U.S. security assistance to Pakistan, comprising $255 million in Foreign Military Financing and as much as $900 million in the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). On top of that, the State Department placed Pakistan on a severe watch list for religious freedom violations, all while Sen. Rand Paul vowed to introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate to cut all aid to Pakistan. In response, Pakistan’s foreign minister furiously declared that there was no alliance between the two countries and that the United States has been a “friend who always betrays.”Taliban Fighters Using High-Tech Gear Kill Afghan Forces
By NAJIM RAHIM
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents using sophisticated night vision and laser targeting equipment overran Afghan Army positions near the northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding five more, Afghan officials said. The officials blamed what they said was a Taliban Red Unit, an insurgent formation that has increasingly featured in attacks on government positions, especially at night. “The unit is equipped with American weapons and night vision,” said Imamuddin Rahmani, a spokesman for the police in Kunduz. “The Red Unit carried out several attacks on check posts in Kunduz, captured the check posts and killed several soldiers. The Red Unit is a headache for security forces in Kunduz.”
Despite Two-Child Families, China’s Birthrate Falls
The birthrate in China fell last year despite the country easing its family planning policies and allowing all couples to have two children, a result parents say of the stresses of urban life.
There were 17.2 million births in the country last year, down from 17.9 million in 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday. With almost 1.4 billion people, China has the world’s largest population but it is aging fast even before reaching its expected peak of 1.45 billion in 2029. China changed its longstanding one-child policy in 2015 in hopes of increasing the size of the younger working population that will eventually have to support their elders. The number of births rose nearly 8 percent in 2016, with nearly half of the babies born to couples who already had a child.
Don't judge China with a fossilised mindset
'There is no Buddha or Gandhi among countries, existing for the service of others; they all exist for the good of themselves.' 'For each country, its own interests should be paramount, and it is futile and churlish to expect China to be an exception to this rule,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant and long-time China-watcher. People's Liberation Army soldiers at a drill in Beijing. Ever since China rediscovered itself after the first few decades of tottering during the Great Helmsman's regime and began reaping the abundant benefits of 'market socialism', taking its place alongside the world's most advanced economies, it has rolled out a series of innovative blockbusters in the domain of foreign policy.China Forces Big Tech to Make a Choice: Play By Beijing’s Rules, or Be Left Out
Zach Montague
When WhatsApp users in China started noticing technical problems with the mobile messaging application this past September, nothing seemed unusual at first. The slow sending speeds and inability to deliver video and audio files could have easily been due to a spotty internet connection or a bug. Many users in China had experienced such issues before; these were usually limited and localized, and they were resolved in a matter of days. But there was also the possibility of government tampering. A few years earlier, in 2014, users of Gmail and other email services in China had reported similar problems, right up until these services were banned outright.
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