China’s economic problems tough nut to crack
(June 13th, 2016) Bloomberg Video: Why China’s economy will be so hard to fix. Hit this link.
France launches app for terror-attack alerts
(June 13th, 2016) The French government has launched an app to alert users to terror attacks. The new service comes as the Euro 2016 soccer championship was about to get underway.
The Interior Ministry app, called SAIP, flashes a warning on users’ mobile phones if there is an attack close to their locations or suspicion of an imminent strike. Users can also request alerts for up to eight areas, including individual districts in Paris.
Turkish leader’s dictatorship trend kills chances for E.U. membership by ’20
Turkey’s increasingly dictatorial president, Recep Erdogan, has destroyed his nation’s chances of joining the European Union by 2020, as some had hoped, for pushing through a new law aimed a destroying parliamentary opposition to Mr. Erdoğan’s ruling neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) by encouraging politically inspired, criminal prosecutions of anti-government legislators.
The E.U.’s rules demand that all applicant states must adhere to democratic governance and uphold such other basic principles as the rule of law, human rights, including freedom of speech, and protection of minorities. President Erdogan now bitterly calls the E.U. “a Christian club.’’
Poll suggests Australians see U.S. Asia-Pacific power waning
(June 13th, 2016) A poll of Australians suggest that most believe that China has become the most influential nation in the Asia-Pacific region and that more want stronger ties with the rising superpower than with the U.S., The Guardian reported.
Enthusiasm for a strong U.S. role in the Asia-Pacific was also significantly lower in Australia than in South Korea, Indonesia, Japan and even China in some cases, according to the research released on Wednesday by the University of Sydney’s U.S .Studies Centre and regional partners.
The Guardian reported that “More Australians (70%) were likely to see Beijing and Washington as ‘competitors’ than even the Chinese citizens surveyed (50%), though the poll also found a significant lack of regional awareness among Australian respondents, 42% of whom were not aware that Japan was a U.S. ally.”
Only the South Koreans and the Japanese felt generally positive about the U.S. role in the region.
James Brown, a research director at the U.S. Studies Center, told The Guardian that the results suggested Australians “remain seized by the narrative that U.S. power is declining in the region” and had a “a benevolent view” of the rivalry between China and the U.S. and “might not automatically identify with Japanese concerns over China” – including disputes over islands in the South China Sea.
Japan, India, U.S. set naval exercises off Okinawa
(June 13th, 2016) In the context of China’s repeated incursions into Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea and attempts to dominate the South China Sea by military force, Japan, India and the United States will hold major trilateral naval exercises off the east coast of Okinawa Prefecture through June 17, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces said June 7.
The large-scale exercises are part of an annual event that since last year has included Japan as a permanent member.
The Japan Times reported that drills, “which will focus on anti-submarine warfare and air-defense training, are likely to bolster ties among the three allies.’’
China has been rapidly bolstering its submarine and other naval forces in the East China and South China Seas for the past several years, worrying other nations in the Asia/Pacific region.