Síntesis informativa - 30 de julio 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lawmakers Accuse Trump and Aides of Delaying F-16 Sales to Taiwan
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in Congress from both political parties have accused the Trump administration of delaying an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island off the coast of China that is supported by the United States.
Chinese officials have said they object strongly to the sale of 66 jets requested by Taiwan, which would be by far the largest such purchase by its government in many years. Lawmakers are now questioning whether the Trump administration is delaying approval of the sale, either to avoid upsetting Beijing while delicate trade negotiations are underway or to use it as a bargaining chip.
Any such move by the administration would ignite intense bipartisan opposition in Congress.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/trump-taiwan-arms-china-trade-.html
Prison Riot Leaves 52 Dead in Northern Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO — A fight between rival gangs in a prison in northern Brazil left at least 52 inmates dead, including at least 16 who were decapitated, according to prison officials.
The clash in Pará State was the latest deadly outbreak of violence in Brazil’s overcrowded and riot-prone prisons, which have seen an increase in population in recent years without investment to match.
Powerful drug kingpins often continue to run their criminal organizations from behind bars in the understaffed detention facilities. And while prison officials often segregate rival gangs, feuds frequently erupt into violence. A similar fight at a prison in neighboring Amazonas State in Mayresulted in the death of 55 inmates.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/world/americas/brazil-prison-dead.html
China Says Most Muslims Have Been Released From Camps. Others Say: Prove It.
BEIJING — The Chinese government claimed victory in its vast and contentious detention program for Muslim minorities on Tuesday, when senior officials said that most inmates held in internment camps across the Xinjiang region had been released and given work.
But experts and members of Muslim minority groups from Xinjiang who have fled abroad quickly contested the claim, saying there was no evidence of mass releases and that people nominally freed from camps often remained in effective captivity.
At a news conference in Beijing, two of Xinjiang’s top leaders indicated that the majority of inmates — and maybe 90 percent or more — had “returned to society.” Their abrupt and largely unexpected announcement appeared to be China’s latest effort to defuse international criticism of the re-education camps, which experts estimate have come to hold a million or more Uighurs and other ethnic minority Muslims since the camps began to expand rapidly in 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang.html
In an Epic Standoff, Unarmed Algerians Get the Army to Blink
ALGIERS — The side with the guns — the army command — dares not spill blood, five months into a popular uprising that chased out Algeria’s autocratic president. The side without — the protesters — remains mobilized, still coursing through the capital’s sun-blasted streets twice a week.
The street has stared down the army, and the army has blinked. So the epic standoff in Algeria — Africa’s largest country, the oil-rich neighbor of Libya, strategically situated on the rim of the Mediterranean Sea, gateway to the deep Sahara — continues.
That it does, even if Algeria is still far from the democracy the street wants, already signals an unusual victory, one making this unfolding and so far bloodless revolution perhaps unique in the Arab world, say the protesters and Algeria analysts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/world/africa/algeria-revolution-standoff.html
THE GUARDIAN
Trump's friend tried to profit from Middle East nuclear deal, lawmakers say
A billionaire friend of Donald Trump pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp – even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy and promote the company’s work on nuclear power in Saudi Arabia, a congressional report released on Monday.
While Tom Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to the US president and other senior members of his administration.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/29/tom-barrack-saudi-arabia-nuclear-deal-envoy
What is facial recognition - and how sinister is it?
As a surveillance technique it’s ubiquitous, but is still a political, legal and ethical conundrum. Advances in three technical fields have played a major part: big data, deep convolutional neural networks and powerful graphics processing units or GPUs.
AL JAZEERA
Accused 9/11 mastermind open to testimony against Saudi Arabia
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed open to testifying in victims' lawsuit if US decides not to seek the death penalty against him.
The lawyers said three, including Mohammed, are housed at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention camp, where they face capital charges, while two are at the "Supermax" maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.
James Kreindler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Reuters it was not clear how useful Mohammed might be.
"He does know quite a bit about the structure of al-Qaeda, the individual decisions taken, how things happened. A lot of that was his thinking," Carle (a former officer with US Central Intelligence Agency) told Al Jazeera. "So, I think he does have information, certainly. Is it useable in a court of law in the United States is one of the big questions." Saudi Arabia long had broad immunity from September 11 lawsuits in the US. But that changed in September 2016 when the US Congress overrode President Barack Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).
Sudan talks cancelled as al-Burhan condemns students' killing
Army ruler says killing of five schoolchildren 'regrettable and unacceptable' as protest leaders cancel planned talks.
Protesters accuse the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) headed by al-Burhan's deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, of shooting dead the five teenagers at Monday's rally against shortages of bread and fuel.
The killings came ahead of planned talks between the ruling Transitional Military Council and protest leaders on the remaining aspects of installing civilian rule following the toppling of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in April.
AL MAYADEEN
Drones yemenitas atacan la base aérea del Rey Khalid en Arabia Saudita
En respuesta a la mascare de la alianza saudita, que dejó un saldo de 14 muertos, incluidos cuatro niños, y 26 heridos, al bombardear el mercado popular en la zona de Eddah, el portavoz de las Fuerzas Armadas Yemenitas, brigadier Yahya Sari, anunció el lanzamiento de una operación a gran escala, en la que fueron empleados drones Q-2 contra la base aérea del Rey Khalid, en Khamis Mushayt, en Asir.
Ankara amenaza con crear zona segura en Siria sin EE.UU. por falta de acuerdo
Akar indicó que los criterios con los que se creará la zona segura deben incluir la incautación de todas las armas de los milicianos kurdos, la eliminación del grupo militante y la destrucción de todos los túneles, refugios, equipos y municiones kurdos.
La semana pasada, el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Turquía, Mevlut Cavusoglu, dijo después de las conversaciones entre las delegaciones estadounidense y turca que los dos países no pudieron llegar a un acuerdo sobre el tamaño de la posible zona segura, quién la controlará ni si se eliminarán o no las milicias kurdas de la zona planeada.
Ejército de EE.UU. causa más emisiones de carbono que países enteros
Solo el Ejército genera 59 millones de toneladas de emisiones de dióxido de carbono, la principal causa del calentamiento global, mientras que países como Suecia, Finlandia, Hungría, Nueva Zelanda, Noruega y Suiza emiten menos emisiones, a pesar de ser países industrializados.
Las nuevas cifras compiladas por Forbes en el contexto de un informe de la Universidad Brown revelan que, desde la guerra de Afganistán en 2001, el ejército de Estados Unidos ha producido mil 212 millones de toneladas de gases contaminantes y daños al clima global.
