Maritime clashes between the Philippines and China had been mostly over the Philippines’ military outpost, BRP (BRP—Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas, which translates to “Ship of the Republic of the Philippines”—the ship prefix for the Philippines) Sierra Madre, in the Spratly Islands, which is disputed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (a province of China, as recognized by the United Nations’ Resolution No. 2758), and Vietnam. The BRP Sierra Madre was intentionally run aground on a reef near the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands, in 1997, so that the Philippines could stake their territorial claim.
“Watch for Taiwan on the defence side to try and start engaging them on a big arms package – to do something significant, very large,” Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council which helps broker defence exchanges between Washington and Taipei, told Reuters, adding it could come in the first quarter of next year.
“But think of it as a down payment, an attention getter,” he said. “They’ll stack up several big platforms and big buys of munitions.”
The U.S. is already Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, although Taiwan has complained of an order backlog worth some $20 billion. A new order, almost $2 billion of missile systems, was announced last month.
Col. Raymond Powell, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (Project Myoushu), Stanford University, California, USA
Major Angela Smith US Army Officer, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (Project Myoushu), Stanford University, California, USA
Leaked files show top UK military figures conspired to carry out the Kerch bridge bombing, covertly train “Gladio”-style stay-behind forces in Ukraine, and groom the British public for a drop in living standards caused by the proxy war against Russia.
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Project Alchemy’s proposed schemes spanned every conceivable field of warfare, from cyber attacks to “discreet operations” to outright terrorism. The secret cell even put forward a plan to “aggressively pursue” and “dismantle” independent media outlets – including The Grayzone – through an aggressive campaign of legal harassment and online censorship, so they “would be forced to close.” The incendiary blueprints were fed to the highest levels of the British state and national security structure, where they were apparently well-received.
Throughout the three-day course, we’ve looked at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. We’ve looked at the operational framework in which both nations work. Some of the considerations that we have to work together with. We’ve looked at media programs and media talent and preparing that talent and facilitating media embed programs. And we also unpacked and looked at photography workshop as well, where we’ve been able to have lots of fun looking at the kits and the tools, and taking some photography and vision in order to amplify key messages into the region.
‘The workshop got our nations on one page to deliver the right information and messages that we want to convey across the globe.’
Embedded journalism:
The original purpose of embedding was to control journalists, according to Helen Benedict, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School. Citing award-winning Australian journalist Phillip Knightley’s book “The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq” which describes how the U.S. government invented embedded journalism in response to critical coverage of the Vietnam War. As civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,000, the Pentagon sought a media strategy that would bring attention back to the military’s role in the war, especially the role played by ordinary American service members. This would require bringing war correspondents on side.
On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relished. A war correspondent who had spent considerable time in Asia, Hunter had achieved brief media stardom in 1951 after his book Brain-Washing in Red China introduced a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.
But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services — something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.
The Philippine military opened two weeks of combat drills Monday that would include seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea and likely be frowned upon by China.
On Nov. 2, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) will host the National Workers’ Rally to carry on the spirit of martyr Jeon Tae-il, a dedicated South Korean sewing worker and labor rights activist who tragically took his life at just 22, a protest against deplorable working conditions in South Korea’s factories. This year, the rally will focus on the call for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s resignation.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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