South Africa has been within the sanctions until recently.

January 27, 2023
By Hans Nichols

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (click here) taunted Moscow that U.S.-led sanctions have impaired Russia's “ability to conduct war” and claimed their military is now scavenging to find crucial replacement parts for battlefield equipment.

Why it matters: Yellen made her comments in an interview with Axios in Johannesburg, South Africa, after warning government officials in Pretoria they shouldn’t violate U.S. sanctions....

Russia is actively recruiting countries to vote with them in the United Nations. It makes no sense for South Africa to isolate itself in a new alliance with Russia.

Interesting that the Russian Foreign Minister and Secretary Yellin are in the same geographical region at the same time. It looks like blocking and tackling to me.

27 January 2023

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (click here) has met Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara during the Russian diplomat’s second tour of Africa to boost international support for Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

The visit comes after Lavrov visited officials in South Africa, one of his country’s most important allies on the continent, where on Monday he pushed back at criticisms over joint naval drills between Russia, China and South Africa scheduled for next month....

Missile Technology Control Regime

They talked about missiles in outer space, but, did they approach any dialogue about the delivery of missiles to end Ukraine? The Russian Federation is a member. Is Russia upholding all agreements regarding missile exports? Is Russia importing weapons to injure Ukraine further? If the organization hasn't taken it's mission seriously, Russia may be in violation of organization standards to maintain membership.

By Jason Kelland 
December 21, 2022

From 17-21 October 2022, (click here) more than 210 experts from the Partner countries assembled in Montreux, Switzerland, for the Plenary Week of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The Plenary marked Switzerland’s assumption of the Chair for the period 2022-2023.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Information Exchange Meeting (IEM) and the Licensing and Enforcement Experts Meeting (LEEM) discussed trends and recent developments in missile proliferation as well as best practices in effective export controls and counter proliferation. In parallel, the Technical Experts Meeting (TEM) started with its negotiations on amendments to the MTCR Technical Annex.

On Wednesday morning, the three experts groups of the MTCR convened in a Joint IEM-LEEM-TEM Meeting to discuss the topic of the MTCR and the emerging commercial space sector. Heads of Delegation also had an informal meeting to discuss issues related to the effectiveness and relevance of the MTCR....

January 27, 2023

Beijing - Zunyi, the seventh Type 055 destroyer (click here) in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army [PLA] fleet, has made its first public appearance since commissioning. This is reported by the Chinese publication Global Times.

According to journalists, the newest ship was shown in a television report on the occasion of the celebration of the Lunar New Year in the city of Zunyi, after which the destroyer is named.

Zunyi’s induction into China’s navy has not been officially announced, but a Beijing-based military expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times that the ship’s appearance in the TV report most likely indicates that it has been ordered and has become the seventh destroyer Type-055 built for the Chinese Navy....

January 25, 2023

The Department of Homeland Security (click here) recorded a precipitous drop in encounters with migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this month, the department said on Wednesday, putting January on track to see the lowest level of monthly border encounters since the beginning of the Biden administration. The drop comes after migrant arrivals reached record levels for Joe Biden’s presidency in December. In a statement, DHS officials credited its policy announced earlier this month that introduced a new parole program for Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans, offering potential migrants a new legal pathway to the United States while cracking down on illegal entries.

These immigrants are near border. Such programs will assist in the stability of the region.

Participation in the program (click here) begins with a supporter or sponsor in the United States in legal status registering to support a Haitian national abroad.

March 17, 2022
By Cecilia Esterline and Jeanne Batalova

...More than 44.9 million immigrants (click here) lived in the United States in 2019, the historical numeric high since census records have been kept. In 2019, immigrants comprised 13.7 percent of the total U.S. population, a figure that remains short of the record high of 14.8 percent in 1890.

The foreign-born population remained largely flat between 2018 and 2019, with an increase of 204,000 people, or growth of less than 0.5 percent. This is consistent with the 203,000 increase from 2017 to 2018 and much lower than the approximately 787,000 increase—or nearly 2 percent growth—between 2016 and 2017. The slowing growth of the immigrant population over the past few years is mirrored by the slowing growth of the overall U.S. population since 2015....

Then came the pandemic of Covid-19 and borders closed.

New Legislation

The Congress needs to pass a requirement of all media services to have one channel that can be a paid channel of which there are no advertisements. I would pay real money for that.