Category: India

US State Department, YouTube Unveil Global Music Alliance

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US State Department, YouTube Unveil Global Music Alliance

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced today a new Department of State-YouTube partnership in support of the Department’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, a worldwide effort to elevate music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy in support of the United States’ broader foreign policy goals. At the core of the partnership is a roster of U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, which builds on the legacy of the iconic Jazz Ambassadors of the 1950s and 1960s and promotes peace across generations of people worldwide.

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In addition to the new U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, the Department and YouTube will join efforts to enhance English language learning through music and across the YouTube platform. This new partnership will support opportunity and equity in the creative economy through in-country engagements with audiences and aspiring creators – beginning in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and India. It will offer micro-grants to State Department exchange program alumni around the world who use music as a means to expand access to education, economic opportunity and equity, and inclusion. And it will raise even greater awareness and inspire action globally around the unifying power of music, during global moments, such as the G20 meetings in Brazil later this year.

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South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs (more information)

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What the article left out is; to shoot far, the Philippine military needs to see far. However, the Philippines don’t have any over-the-horizon (OTH) radar, military satellites, AWACS planes or other long-range ISR capabilities, to make use of the full range of the BrahMos missile. Without it the missile is limited to the range of its available ISR assets, which are measured in just dozens of kilometers.

However, if a BrahMos missile is ever launched against a long-range Chinese target, it will be easy to guess who would have supplied the essential Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) information and target identification to the Philippine military.

StarBoySAR

South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs

Even if the Philippines lacks the advanced communications, intelligence, and targeting systems needed to maximise the BrahMos’ capabilities, it could still leverage US support in these areas, Koh said, citing the sinking of Russia’s Moskva warship by Ukraine in 2022, which he said was achieved thanks to “targeting support provided by Kyiv’s allies, chiefly the Americans”.

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva became the largest warship lost in combat since the second world war when it was hit by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles in April 2022. US officials later told the media that the Pentagon had provided intelligence that led to the ship’s sinking.

For the Philippines, the BrahMos missiles are “significant game changers” [🙄], according to security strategist Chester Cabalza, president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila.

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However, Don McLain Gill, an international-studies lecturer at De La Salle University in the Philippines, questioned whether the BrahMos purchase alone would deliver robust deterrence against China.

“It will be crucial for the BrahMos to be supplemented by efficient intelligence, surveillance, target-acquisition and reconnaissance, which is critical to track targets and ensure they can be used by command,” he said, warning Manila must invest further to maximise the missiles’ deterrent value.

Previously:

Philippines Builds First BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile Base Facing South China Sea

World Spending On Nukes Explodes To More Than $90 Billion

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World Spending On Nukes Explodes To More Than $90 Billion

Honeywell International, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics topped the list of companies profiting from nuclear weapons expenditures.

That flood of public funds to private contractors was coupled by significant spending by these companies on efforts to shape the debate around government spending. The companies spent $118 million lobbying governments in the U.S. and France in 2023 and donated more than $6 million to think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons.

Lockheed Martin contributed to the most think tanks, including: Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, Chatham House, Center for a New American Security, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hudson Institute, and Observer Research Foundation.

Nancy Pelosi Meets With Dalai Lama, Despite China’s Criticism

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Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, addressing the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, on Tuesday. Credit: Reuters

A high-level U.S. congressional delegation, including the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Dalai Lama at his Indian home on Wednesday, a visit that was condemned in advance by China’s government, which considers the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist.

Nancy Pelosi Meets With Dalai Lama, Despite China’s Criticism

Related:

US lawmakers pass Tibet policy bill that questions China’s claims over region

Tibet

Newsy News and Views (Türkiye, India, Canada)

Ms. Cat

Newsy News and Views

Just leaving some links and some views

Aljazeera

  • India- Western media coverage is interesting. A clear pleasure in the election outcome is obvious. Advance polls had Modi winning another majority and contrary to those polls his party did not. Personally speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised if some western backed NGO’s tinkered with the election. The west has India on it’s radar for so many reasons. Continuing relations with China and Russia being just two of those reasons. The economy is in good shape. 

Turkey is looking to join the BRICS

Source

They may as well- It’s going to be the go to trading bloc by the looks of things. The EU has been giving Turkey the run around for nearly two decades, so why not.

Turkey would like to join BRICS and this issue will be discussed at the group’s ministerial meeting in Nizhny Novgorod, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during his visit to China.

“Certainly, we would like to become a member of BRICS. So we’ll see how it goes this year,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper quoted him as saying.

According to Fidan, some European countries are against Turkey joining the EU, so the Turkish authorities are considering BRICS as an alternative integration platform. “We cannot ignore the fact that BRICS, as an important cooperation platform, offers some other countries a good alternative,” he said. “We see potential in BRICS,” the top Turkish diplomat added.

According to the SCMP, Fidan also said that he was hoping to attend the group’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Russia. According to the newspaper, “one of the topics on the agenda is expected to be the possibility of Turkey, a NATO ally, joining the BRICS grouping.”

On June 10-11, Nizhny Novgorod will host a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, the event will be held in an expanded format, including non-member partners.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a BRICS summit in 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin said then that Ankara could join BRICS in 2022. By now Turkey has not taken any steps in this direction.

And the Bank of Canada cut rates .25%

Given the way things look globally, this may be the only rate cut this year? Or maybe one of two? It’s just looking too ugly every where.

The Fascist Mimicry of Anti-Imperialism

Ms. Cat

A little more than a century ago the world’s superpower was the British Empire. Despite being a constitutional monarchy where the aristocracy and monarchy still retained significant power, the British Empire was arguably the birthplace of the industrial revolution and it played a significant role in spreading capitalism around the world through colonialism. From around the 19th century until the early 20th century, many saw the British Empire as quite possibly the most affluent and powerful capitalist-colonial empire in the world. The British Empire as the capitalist-colonial hegemon extracts resources from its colonies, transforms them into commodities, and sells them for a profit that would go into the pockets of capitalists and royal colonizers alike. There were other competing colonizers such as France, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Japan, and the U.S., but none of them (except the U.S. in the late 20th century) could quite surpass the British Empire. The British Empire was the largest epicenter of world capitalist imperialism and being an anti-imperialist was almost (though not quite) synonymous with being against the British Empire. The geopolitical status of the British Empire is roughly or loosely analogous to the geopolitical status that the U.S. enjoyed since the late 20th century. Both the British Empire and the U.S. enjoy the status of being a hegemonic empire due to their overwhelmingly powerful military (especially their navy) and almost unparalleled economic power.

The Fascist Mimicry of Anti-Imperialism