WASHINGTON - The Islamic State terror group appears to be exploiting security gaps across Syria and Iraq to reposition its forces and help fuel an increase in violence that is reenergizing fighters and supporters. Officials with U.S.-backed forces in northeastern Syria tell VOA the recent surge in violence across the region, including attacks on civil servants and execution-style killings at the al-Hol displaced persons camp, are linked to an influx of operatives from areas nominally under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as from neighboring Iraq. The assessment of U.S. partners on the ground is consistent with Washington’s own findings in recent months, which warn that IS fighters and operatives enjoy freedom of movement across much of Syria while finding ways to shape the environment to the terror group’s advantage. “ISIS is not finished yet,” Mazloum Abdi, the general commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told VOA’s Kurdish … [Read more...] about Islamic State Fuels Syria Violence, Re-energizing Fighters and Supporters
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Founder Of Chinese Front Group Spoke At CIA Nominee’s Think Tank Amid Beijing Propaganda Push
William Burns, the nominee for CIA director, testified before the Senate about links between a think tank he leads and a Chinese foundation that serves as a front group for the communist party. Burns said that he cut ties with the group, the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), “not long after” he took over as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But the founder of the foundation gave a pro-Beijing speech at a Carnegie event more than 14 months after Burns took over the think tank. CUSEF donated between $200,000 and $500,000 to Carnegie between 2015 and 2017. The founder of a front group for the Chinese Communist Party appeared at an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in May 2016, where he pushed a pro-Beijing argument regarding a decades-long stalemate over control of the South China Sea. The speech, by Tung Chee-hwa, the founding chairman of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), was held more than 14 months … [Read more...] about Founder Of Chinese Front Group Spoke At CIA Nominee’s Think Tank Amid Beijing Propaganda Push
China Mocks Biden Syria Bombing: ‘America Is Back’
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper mocked President Joe Biden on Friday, quoting his declaration, “America is back,” in a headline about his decision to bomb Syria on Thursday evening. Biden made the remark in a speech about foreign policy in early February, in which he vowed to limit American military engagement. “And they know when you speak, you speak for me,” Biden told diplomats at the State Department. “And so — so is the message I want the world to hear today: America is back. America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.” On Thursday, 36 days into his presidency, Biden took unilateral action in Syria, ordering what the Pentagon dubbed a “defensive precision strike” on members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a legal wing of the Iraqi armed forces. “At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern … [Read more...] about China Mocks Biden Syria Bombing: ‘America Is Back’
Study Reveals Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Less Effective Against South African Variant
A new study shows the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the South African variant of the virus, although it generates a slightly lower immune response. In a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers with Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch created a version of the virus that carried the same mutations found in the South African variant dubbed B.1.35.1. They tested the engineered virus against blood samples from people who had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The results found the vaccine’s ability to produce antibodies was reduced by two-thirds, compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus. In a separate letter published in the NEJM, U.S. drugmaker Moderna says it has discovered similar results with its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine in fighting the B.1.35.1 variant. Pfizer and BioNTech issued a statement saying they were making the necessary investments and talking … [Read more...] about Study Reveals Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Less Effective Against South African Variant
San Francisco to Redistribute $120 Million from Police to Black Community
San Francisco Mayor London Breed released a plan Thursday to redistribute $120 million from the city’s law enforcement budget to projects aimed at helping the city’s black minority. Bay Area public radio station KQED reported : San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday announced a plan for how the city will spend $120 million over the next two years, pulled from law enforcement budgets, to reinvest in the city’s long-underserved Black communities. “The Dream Keeper Initiative,” as it’s dubbed, increases investments in workforce development, health campaigns, youth and cultural programs and housing support. The allocations reflect spending priorities conveyed by Black residents during a series of community meetings and public surveys led last year by the city’s Human Rights Commission, Breed said. … Black people make up only about 5% of San Francisco’s population — a proportion that has consistently decreased in the last 50 years — but make up nearly 40% of its … [Read more...] about San Francisco to Redistribute $120 Million from Police to Black Community