Linky Friday: Meanwhile, Elsewhere
World map with elevation of the land and depth of the oceans-NOAA image
[LF1] Indyref2: Jeremy Hunt says UK government will refuse permission
[LF2] Trump vowed to leave Syria in a tweet. Now, with a Sharpie, he agreed to stay.
[LF3] Pakistan cracks down on militants, takes control of religious schools
[LF4] Shanghai stocks plummet more than 4%: ‘China’s trade recession has started to emerge’
[LF5] Somalia’s government misplayed its hand at a conference in London
[LF6] How Australia Became the Defamation Capital of the World
[LF7] What You Need to Know About the Huawei Court Case in Canada
[LF8] Russia’s Africa Ambitions
[LF9] Indonesia and Australia sign new free trade agreement
[LF10] In India, a search for ‘traitors’ after conflict with Pakistan
[LF11] Almost 90% of UK shoppers use Amazon, research reveals
[LF12] China ‘at war with faith’ says US ambassador at large
[LF13] Australia’s Cardinal Pell sued for alleged child abuse in 1970sAustralia’s Cardinal Pell sued for alleged child abuse in 1970sAustralia’s Cardinal Pell sued for alleged child abuse in 1970s
[LF14] Under pressure, Canada’s Trudeau denies impropriety, offers no apology
[LF15] Civilians Stream Out of Islamic State’s Last Syrian Enclave as Final Assault Looms
[LF16] The new scramble for Africa
[LF17] Papuans, Indonesia Military Clash, at Least 4 Dead
LF16: Hardly surprising, since Africa is the only continent left with a large population, a lot of land, and the kind of desperate poverty that leads governments to permit industry to work cheap (meaning, dirty).
The reason that China has gotten so grabby with rock piles off its coast is that it wants to be able to extend its claims of territorial waters (and, therefore, the internationally-recognized right to free navigation.) There’s a future-war scenario where the UN condemns human-rights violations by Chinese corporations in Africa, and orders inspection of all goods traveling from African ports to Chinese ones. What China wants is to have enough sea claims that it can say “Chinese-flagged vessels are traveling in Chinese waters for the entire trip, therefore any interference with those vessels would be an act of war.”Report
LF5 – this is one of those cases where I’d like to hear ‘the other side’, as absent any real knowledge of the subject myself, I could still see the case for the Somali government making this play. But Rubin has a primae facie case himself.
I am curious why Michael Rubin has had a burst of articles on Somalia in the past few weeks. (It’s not generally his thing, per his own bio)Report
Perhaps he’s grown disillusioned with countries that have laws and started investigating Somalia as a potential utopia that would suit him better.Report
Lf8 – to me, this is still a ‘so what’. Trying to play the traditional empire game is vast money sink in the 21st century with very limited upside. Plus even if Russia gets port call rights, it’s military is very limited in the way of ‘expeditionary’ (as is everyone else’s but the USA). Intel gathering can be done quite easily (and really more easily) without substantial presence, and it’s not like any ship can ‘sneak’ past the Suez anyway.
And most of all, as the article mentions, China is trying to do all of this already, and has a lot more resources in multiple domains to edge out Russia in this game.Report