- The Guardian
- Issue #2165
CHINA: Three US companies – unmanned vehicle maker Saronic Technologies, satellite technology company Aercomm, and subsea engineering firm Oceaneering International, have been added to China’s “unreliable entity list.” The move effectively ban the companies from trade with China. The Commerce Ministry said the companies have “engaged in so-called military-technical cooperation with Taiwan, severely undermining China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
CANADA: Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on strike after the government’s announcement that door-to-door mail delivery would end for nearly all households within the next decade.
USA: Hundreds of generals and admirals have been summoned to a mass meeting in Virginia, including some who had to be pulled out of involvement in ongoing conflicts. US President Donald Trump said that the meeting was about ‘esprit de corps’ but didn’t explain further.
CUBA: Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío has called US attacks on Venezuela “a threat to the whole continent, the whole region,” adding that Cuba would give “it’s full political support” to Venezuela in the event of a war. de Cossio linked the bullying approach of the US to other countries to its treatment of Cuba, saying that the USA is “trying to cut Cuba off from the world economy.”
MADAGASCAR: Madagascar’s government imposed a night curfew following massive protests against ongoing water and power cuts. Hundreds of people went out to voice their anger at persistent power cuts which often leave homes and businesses without electricity for over 12 hours. Messages displayed on protesters’ placards read: “Water and electricity are basic human needs,” “Let us speak out” and “Malagasy people, wake up.”
USA: The FBI has dismissed a group of agents who were photographed kneeling down during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in Washington. The FBI Agents Association condemned the dismissal as “unlawful,” saying they violated civil service protections and due process. “Leaders uphold the law – they don’t repeatedly break it,” the group said in a statement, urging Congress to investigate the decision by FBI Director Kash Patel.
ARGENTINA: Clashes erupted between thousands of demonstrators, mainly women, and police in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires. The protesters demanded justice over the live-streamed torture and killing of two young women and a teenage girl on social media. The bodies of the victims were found buried in the yard of a house in the suburbs of then capital, five days after the three victims went missing.
ECUADOR: US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be visiting Ecuador shortly to “define the location of Homeland Security bases” in the country. Legal experts reacted with surprise to the plan to host foreign bases because Ecuador’s Constitution explicitly prohibits it. President Noboa has called a referendum on the matter but the fact remains that the plans to host foreign bases without a popular mandate violates the country’s sovereignty and constitutional order. During the Noboa administration Ecuador has become the USA’s main geopolitical ally in Latin America. The right-wing Noboa is a US citizen and the son of Ecuador’s richest billionaire oligarch.
