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Song Binbin, who has died, probably aged 77, became a poster girl for the bloody Chinese “Cultural Revolution” when on August 18 1966 she was photographed overlooking an immense rally in Tiananmen Square, pinning a red armband, symbol of the Red Guards, on the arm of the Chinese dictator Mao Zedong. Two weeks earlier she had taken part in the murder of Bian Zhongyun, deputy principal of the Beijing high school she attended, one of the first – and one of the most notorious – of the murders that inaugurated a decade of slaughter in which between one and...

Chinese analysts mocked the remarks of White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who said that the US' commitment to Taiwan "remains as strong as it's ever been," pointing out that actions speak louder than words and that Washington's reassurances are astonishing against the backdrop of its abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan. They said that once the price for keeping its strategic interests with Taiwan becomes unbearable, the US will abandon Taiwan island without hesitation. During a press conference on Tuesday, in response to questions that people in Taiwan island and elsewhere are fearful that the US will abandon them like...

China warned of "serious consequences" for trespassing in its airspace on Thursday, hours after the U.S. Air Force delivered "diplomatic mail" to the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei. A C-146A Wolfhound, typically used by Air Force Special Operations Command, left Okinawa's Kadena Air Base in Japan before landing at Songshan Airport in Taiwan's capital at 9:32 a.m. local time, publicly available flight tracking data showed. Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Defense Ministry, said in an online statement that Beijing expressed its "serious concern" over the stopover, which lasted just more than half an hour. "Taiwan is part of...

The madness continues on the southern border, particularly in Texas. We’ve already seen all of the horror stories of unaccompanied children being tossed over a ten-foot border wall by coyotes, leaving them on the ground for CBP to find. But now some of the immigration enforcement agents are reportedly too overwhelmed by the numbers to do even the minimal amount of processing work. According to an Associated Press report, entire families have been turned loose, not only without a court date but without any paperwork at all. Some haven’t even been fingerprinted or had their identity verified. So I take...

Communist guerrillas in the Philippines have trained their sights on Chinese state-owned firms building infrastructure and military bases in the country, projects that have the backing of President Rodrigo Duterte. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered its military wing, the New People’s Army, to target firms involved in the construction of seven Chinese military bases in the West Philippines Sea (the eastern parts of the South China Sea that are part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone).The CPP claims the projects violate Philippine sovereignty and destroy marine resources within its exclusive economic zone, according to a statement.While...

On February 26, 2018, Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza launched the Black Futures Fund, which discloses on its donations page that “Black Futures Lab is a fiscally sponsored project of the Chinese Progressive Association”. The CPA, active in areas such as San Francisco and Boston, has long and deep ties to Chinese Maoist activity in the United States. Cofounder and board chair emeritus Pam Tau Lee was active during her student days at Cal State Hayward and Berkeley with the I Wor Kuen, a Chinese Maoist counterpart of the Black Panthers which merged with the Red Guard Party, a...

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to soon formally repeal the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in what would be one of the biggest blows yet to former President Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change. A draft proposal of the EPA’s conclusions, leaked to news outlets over the past 24 hours, argues that the plan — which would limit carbon emissions from power plants and, in the process, drastically reduce the amount of coal-generated electricity in the U.S. — goes beyond the bounds of federal law and unnecessarily hikes energy prices for consumers. ~snip~ “The EPA is proposing to repeal the...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials are moving ahead with a key part of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) despite the Supreme Court issuing a stay against the agency’s global warming plan in February. The EPA submitted a proposal to the White House for green energy subsidies for states that meet the federally mandated carbon dioxide reduction goals early. The Clean Energy Incentive Program would give “credit for power generated by new wind and solar projects in 2020 and 2021” and a “double credit for energy efficiency measures in low-income communities,” according to Politico’s Morning Energy.The move seems to violate the...

A U.S. federal court on Thursday rejected a bid by 27 states to block the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of its strategy to combat climate change. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a brief order denying an application seeking to stay the rule while litigation continues.

Sen. Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton denounced a new federal emissions regulation as illegal, expensive and pointless Thursday during an energy conference organized by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.The Environmental Protection Agency's new regulation, known as the Clean Power Plan, was finalized last month and immediately challenged in court by 26 states and an array of companies and associations in the energy industry."The regulation is neither clean nor does it have anything to do with power, other than the Obama Administration's power to harm our energy production," Cruz, a Republican, said in a taped message. "The CPP would,...

A coalition of 35 conservative and free market groups is urging state officials to “fiercely resist” the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to force them to implement “ruinous” new greenhouse gas emission rules that could double the current price of electricity or face harsh regulatory repercussions if they refuse. “You should send a clear message to the federal government that if it insists on pursuing the regulatory equivalent of punitive energy taxes, it must promulgate and implement that policy itself—and be held solely accountable for the disastrous consequences that will follow,” the coalition said a letter sent to governors, state...

When it comes to energy, climate change, justice and transparency, the Obama Administration and its Environmental Protection Agency want it every possible way. Their only consistency is their double standards and their determination to slash hydrocarbon use, ensure that electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket,” expand federal government command and control, and “fundamentally transform” America.The president was thus eager to give away Seal Team secrets in bragging about “he” got Osama bin Laden. But in sharp contrast, there has been no transparency on Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal – or the data and analyses that supposedly support Environmental Protection Agency...

Enlarge ImageOn track. Colonies of genetically corrected cells taken from Fanconi anemia patients show red and yellow, markers associated with pluripotency. Credit: Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte Two papers published this week appear to bring closer the day when embryonic-like stem cells can be used to treat human diseases. One study describes what scientists say is the safest method yet to produce these cells. The other reports success in using the cells to begin correcting a rare genetic disorder known as Fanconi anemia. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were first reported in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka, a researcher at Kyoto...

Families still hopeful(EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Communist Party of the Philippines marks its 35th founding anniversary this Friday, the Inquirer is coming out with this special report on the bloody purges within the party in the 1980s. With the country under Ferdinand Marcos' rule by martial law, the outlawed Marxist-Maoist party rose to the height of its political and military strength. It was also a time of infiltration by "deep-penetration agents" by the Marcos military. Within the party, hundreds of men and women who had dedicated their lives to what they believed was a noble cause, were suspected of being...

THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the revolutionary movement continues to gain strength in Panay Island amid massive military operations. "The rebel movement registered significant gains in 2003 as it frustrated intensive military operations," the CPP said in a statement marking their recent 35th Founding Anniversary. A military officer in the region, however, said there is no reason for the CPP to celebrate because it has done nothing for the country except contribute to the destruction of government properties, killing of own comrades and conduct of extortion activities. He added if the underground movement wanted reforms they should...

Ka Roger’s raspy voice filters out of the morning radio program, casual and so commonplace that millions of Filipino listeners have come to regard it as part of the daily news rather than a disturbing presence of a guerrilla openly challenging a government. “There are two governments in this country, the revolutionary government and the reactionary government,” said Roger, nom de guerre of Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). “They can’t deny that we exist and we exercise government powers,” Rosal said. Nilo de la Cruz,...

BAGUIO, Philippines, Aug 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The spokesman of the communist insurgent movement in the Philippines Saturday, August 17, 2002, called for attacks on U.S. troops and companies in reaction to the U.S. labeling the group a terrorist organization, news agencies reported. Gregorio Rosal, spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said the label was a sign of American "preparations for justifying its violation of Philippine sovereignty and launching a war of aggression," against local communist guerrillas. In a statement released in the southern mountain city of Rosal, he said U.S. troops are vulnerable targets...

THE HAGUE — The assets of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its exiled founder Jose Ma. Sison have been frozen following a request from the United States, which had put the group on a "terrorist" blacklist, the Dutch government said Tuesday. Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Jochems said the Netherlands authorities have also asked European Union member-countries to freeze assets of the CPP and Sison. At Malacañang, President Arroyo welcomed yesterday the Dutch government’s move, saying she hoped such act would "hasten the peace talks" that may lead the CPP-NPA to participate in the parliamentary struggle instead...

Recently, I received a message from the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance (1), which is a coalition of the Allied Pilots' Association, the Coalition of Airline Pilots' Associations, the Air Line Pilots' Association, and the Independent Pilots' Association. The message concerned arming commercial airline pilots, but it provided some very good information the national media seems to have overlooked. For instance: “Most people don't know that for many decades after the dawn of commercial aviation, airline pilots carried firearms in the cockpit without incident. However, in late 1987, after a suicidal attacker broke into the cockpit of an airliner, murdered the...