MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Sunday called on the leaders of the House of Representatives to initiate a thorough probe into the alleged secret anti-inoculation campaign of the United States (US) military aimed at undermining China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One hundred years ago this month, I was reminded by Portside’s “This Week in People’s History” feature (5/29/23), a constitutional amendment passed both houses of Congress, with large majorities, and went to the states for ratification. It remains a proposal, not a law, to this day, because the necessary three-quarters of states didn’t accept it.
…
In April 2023, the Washington Post (4/23/23) reported on the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank with a lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, that’s crucially behind these state-level moves to undermine rules to keep children from working long hours in dangerous conditions. The Iowa state senate had just approved an FGA-maneuvered bill letting children as young as 14 work night shifts.
…
Does every story on child labor need to mention the advocacy group? Of course not. But if you consider the rollback of child labor laws a problem, connected to other problems, then calling groups like them out adds something key to understanding that problem and how to address it.
There’s more, but I’m not going to beat a dead horse with this one. They’re basically the same groups that have been trying to privatize education, destroy unions, etc.
Canadian parliamentarians have unanimously voted for a non-binding motion, put forward by Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, that refers to Tibetans as “a people and a nation” who should get self-determination. This, having occurred on June 10, 2024, is a fundamental rejection of China’s sovereign control of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and an indisputable attack on China’s sovereignty.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
“RIPLEY (voice-over): Chinese state media is using A.I.-enhanced videos on TikTok, altering the reporter’s voice and face. A disclosure on screen for just a few seconds, easy to miss.
[01:39:52]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under China’s jurisdiction.
RIPLEY: The video is pushing Beijing’s narrative on the South China Sea.
Is this a threat to democracy?
FELIPE SALVOSA II, JOURNALISM PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS: Most definitely. I think China has found a more cost-effective way to get its message across.
RIPLEY: Turning today’s digital landscape into a battleground for truth, where seeing is no longer believing.
Every time I do a story about these deepfake videos, what strikes me is the quality keeps improving. Our researcher (INAUDIBLE) spent hours putting these through algorithms to determine with 99 percent accuracy whether these videos are real, whether they’re fake, whether the voice has been altered, the face has been altered. Who on social media has time for that and a lot of people don’t take the time which experts say is dangerous, particularly in democracies when people are watching these videos and then potentially using the information they hear to make decisions about how to vote.
The Chinese Island province of Taiwan continues to be targeted by the US and its political proxies through efforts to further consolidate political control over it and transform it into a geopolitical “battering ram” against the rest of China.
I just finished reading ‘Trotsky the Traitor’ and ‘Why I Resigned From the Trotsky Defense Committee’ by Mauritz A. Hallgren. While reading ‘Trotsky the Traitor’, I was reminded of what happens when so-called ‘pro-democracy’ activists are being investigated in their home countries, for treason, yet the corporate media sings their praises. Interestingly, Wikipedia states that the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky was a front organization.
The “Fighters for Free North Korea*” group claimed to have sent balloons containing USB thumb drives loaded with K-pop music and 200,000 leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un, while another group of DPRK defectors dispatched balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, radios, and USB thumb drives featuring a speech by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
…
In 2020, South Korea’s Constitutional Court invalidated a law criminalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, citing it as an undue restriction on free speech**. Consequently, experts argue that there are currently no legal grounds for the government to intervene in activists’ balloon launches into the DPRK. The South Korean Unification Ministry stated that the issue is being deliberated in light of the 2023 court ruling.
…
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have endured for an extended period as a result of systemic escalation on the part of Japan, the US, and South Korea.
The three nations have been conducting joint naval drills in the peninsula and along the demilitarized zone, which has triggered major security concerns on the part of DPRK.
ASPI funding (Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, New Zealand, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Thales Australia, American Chamber of Commerce, Center for Strategic and International Studies, German Marshall Fund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
You must be logged in to post a comment.