Two men were jailed in the UK after being convicted of spying for China. It's believed to be the first case in the UK where people have been convicted of espionage on behalf of Beijing.
Did you know that in Finland we light a bonfire on Midsummer Eve (today!) to celebrate Midsummer, bring good luck and keep away evil spirits? 🔥
I wish you a magical Midsummer filled with light, nature and great memories… maybe even a few spells 🥰💗
Are we hyping the presence of the Chinese floating platform in Bajo de Masinloc? Of course not. We have more than enough basis to say so, because the Chinese government has always been good at lying—especially when it comes to denying its true intentions in the West Philippine Sea.
Here is a video of Wang Yi in Manila in 1995, where he claimed that the shelter China built on Panganiban (Mischief) Reef—well within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone—was for civilian purposes only, and would remain so even in the future. But look at that same reef today: a massive illegal reclamation that is now one of China’s largest military bases in the entire South China Sea.
Their claim that they care about the marine environment is just as hollow. They showed no such concern when they bulldozed and buried the reefs and seabed to build their illegal bases across the South China Sea.
As CEO of Australian mining company Lynas, Amanda Lacaze built a Western rare-earths powerhouse. Now she’s supplying the Pentagon. https://t.co/PEFaPaoIFG
Did you know that the exiled King of France spent five years in rural Buckinghamshire, waiting around for Napoleon to give him his throne back? My favourite birthday treat is going for a night in his luxurious home, which is now a hotel belonging to the National Trust
Thank you so much to Hartwell House for gifting me a night's stay! I think the fact I've stayed there often on my own dollar also tells its own story ❤️ #ad
Read all about it in my weekly history newsletter, MY LIFE IN THE PAST! 😃
https://t.co/rwEEDy5rBs
Tomorrow (6/19), in honor of the World Cup, we're celebrating Free Kilt Friday! Anyone wearing a kilt gets free admission to the Old North Church.
Old North's ties to Scotland go back centuries. In this video, Rev. Matthew explains why we have a Scottish flag in our sanctuary.
A group of indigenous Taiwanese #seafarers have completed a daring quest, braving choppy waters and using the stars for navigation as they paddled a traditional wooden #canoe to the #Philippines. Kristie Lu Stout @klustout reports on their journey.
#Taiwan
https://t.co/IaeS1a1CB5
When I was struggling through grad school, I landed a job at a small ethnic (Greek-American) paper in Boston, and the publisher dropped some books on my desk as my "training" said: Read these.
Zinsser was one of them and it was the best advice he ever gave me.
'Why is a flat-screen TV affordable and a college education not?...Because Congress has spent 60 years trying to make college affordable and has spent zero years trying to make TVs affordable.' By @reason's Aaron Brown, Michael Mendelson, @CliffordAsness https://t.co/ffQC5XQmIy
The inclusion of Taiwan in a G7 joint statement is expected to be seen as a victory for Takaichi, whose remarks last year about Japan intervening militarily in a crisis over Taiwan sent Tokyo’s ties with Beijing to their lowest point in decades.
https://t.co/xjMzZdP0mh
Beijing weaponized Kenyan immigration officials to arbitrarily lock up an invited Taiwanese scholar for 20 hours right before a major international ocean summit.
During preparations for the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenyan authorities confiscated the academic's passport and phone under intense political pressure from China. The hostility escalated when Kenyan officials blocked Taiwanese IP addresses and abruptly revoked travel visas for the arriving scientists. Citing severe safety concerns, Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, the government agency managing maritime policy, was forced to completely withdraw its entire delegation from the global environmental forum.
This cross-border targeting exposes how the Chinese Communist Party exploits its predatory Belt and Road infrastructure loans to turn debt-ridden nations into diplomatic enforcers. By weaponizing financial leverage, the regime is successfully forcing foreign governments to sabotage international scientific cooperation and systematically isolate Taiwan.
#Taiwan #Kenya #CCPTransnationalRepression #BeltAndRoad #OurOceanConference #Geopolitics
Breaking news: EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas says the EU has "now verified reports that the Chinese military has been training Russian military personnel to fight in Ukraine"
Speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers - "we are carefully assessing the implications"
Interesting how many people replying to this have no clue that China refuses to give new journalist visas to reporters working for US media so they are forced to locate in Asian cities outside the mainland
KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun just faced a brutal reality check in the US when Chinese protesters completely swarmed her for trying to play nice with the Chinese Communist Party. In a viral video, a furious crowd of Chinese citizens surrounded the Taiwanese politician outside a restaurant, screaming "traitor" and accusing her of collaborating with communists. They slammed her for selling out the Republic of China, fiercely chanting that the ROC is the only legitimate China and utterly rejecting any compromise with Beijing.
This public confrontation exposes the exploding anger over the KMT's cross-strait appeasement, proving that even anti-CCP Chinese nationals reject Beijing's political proxies. After leading a controversial delegation to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping, Cheng framed her US trip as a peace mission, but critics see it as a spineless capitulation that erodes Taiwan's democracy.
#Taiwan #KMT #ChengLiwun #CCP #Protest #Diaspora #Democracy #Taipei #NewYork
On June 13, 1777, a 19-year-old French teenager landed on a beach in South Carolina, uninvited, to fight in someone else's war. He would become one of the most important men in American history.
The Marquis de Lafayette was one of the richest young aristocrats in France. He had a beautiful wife, a fortune, and zero reason to risk any of it. But he believed in the American cause so fiercely that when the French king forbade him from going, Lafayette bought his own ship and sailed anyway. He literally went AWOL from a life of luxury to bleed for a country that didn't exist yet.
Congress was annoyed at first. Another foreign officer looking for a paycheck? Then Lafayette offered to serve for free and pay his own way. That got their attention.
He met Washington and the two formed one of the great father-son bonds in American history. Washington had no biological children. Lafayette named his only son George Washington Lafayette.
He took a bullet in the leg at Brandywine and kept rallying the retreat. He was instrumental at Yorktown, the battle that won the war. He went home a hero on two continents.
A foreign teenager believed in America before America did. 249 years ago today.
Former MI6 Chief Richard Moore: Without China, Russia would have lost war in Ukraine.
North Korean troops and Iranian drones grab headlines. But what keeps Putin in Ukraine is China — chemicals for artillery shells, components for drones and missiles.
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