Pacific nations reject China security pact

Yahoo – AFP, Frank Bainimarama, 30 May 2022

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that that Beijing is willing to
work with other major powers in the Pacific region to help island nations
develop (AFP/Vaitogi Asuisui MATAFEO) (Vaitogi Asuisui MATAFEO)

Ten Pacific island nations rebuffed China's push for a wide-ranging regional security pact Monday, amid worries the proposal was designed to pull them into Beijing's orbit. 

Talks in Fiji between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and leaders from the small island nations failed to reach an agreement, in a high-profile diplomatic setback for Beijing. 

China is offering to radically ramp up its activities in the South Pacific, directly challenging the influence of the United States and its allies in the strategically vital region. 

The proposed pact would see Beijing train Pacific island police, become involved in cybersecurity, expand political ties, conduct sensitive marine mapping and gain greater access to natural resources on land and in the water. 

As an enticement, Beijing is offering millions of dollars in financial assistance, the prospect of a potentially lucrative China-Pacific islands free trade agreement and access to China's vast market of 1.4 billion people. 

Behind the scenes, Pacific leaders have voiced deep misgivings about the offer. 

In a recent letter to fellow leaders, David Panuelo, the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, warned the offer was "disingenuous" and would "ensure Chinese influence in government" and "economic control" of key industries. 

A more soft-spoken public rebuke came after the talks, when leaders said they could not agree to Beijing's proposed "Common Development Vision" due to a lack of regional consensus. 

"As always, we put consensus first," co-host and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said after the meeting, indicating that broad accord would be needed before inking any "new regional agreements". 

Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia were said to be among those concerned about the proposals, along with Taiwan-recognising Palau, which was not invited. 

"We would rather deal with our own security issues with China", Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Soroi Eoe told AFP, indicating concern about any region-wide pact. 

Chinese officials -- working frantically to secure support during Wang's 10-day diplomatic blitz of the region -- admitted their entreaties had fallen short. 

"There has been general support from the 10 countries," Chinese ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo told reporters in Suva. "But of course, there are some concerns on some specific issues and we have agreed that these two documents will be discussed afterwards until we have reached an agreement." 

Speaking from Suva, Wang made the face-saving announcement that the 10 countries had agreed to memorandums of understanding on China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative. 

The two sides will "continue to have ongoing and in-depth discussions and consultations to shape more consensus on cooperation", he said, urging those worried by Beijing's intentions not to be "too anxious and don't be too nervous". 

The full proposal has not been made public, but was leaked to media including AFP ahead of Monday's meeting. 

China has said it will release a "position paper" highlighting the proposals to the public in the coming weeks. 

Balancing act 

Western powers have bristled against China's move into the region, with the US State Department warning South Pacific nations to be wary of "shadowy, vague deals with little transparency". 

Australia joined the United States in urging a spurning of China's attempts to expand its security reach deep into the region, with the country's new foreign minister warning of the "consequences" of such deals. 

Many in the Pacific are uneasy at being thrust to the centre of a geopolitical tussle between China and US allies. 

Most capitals are keen to maintain amicable ties with China, balancing relations between Beijing, Washington, Canberra and Wellington, while focusing on the more urgent threat of climate change and day-to-day economic issues. 

During a joint appearance with Wang, Bainimarama hit out at those engaged in "geopolitical point-scoring". 

It "means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas, whose job has been lost to a pandemic or whose family is impacted by the rapid rise in the price of commodities", he said. 

All but a few of the Pacific Islands are low-lying and deeply vulnerable to sea-level rises caused by climate change. 

Before the meeting, President Xi Jinping sent a message that China would be "a good brother" to the region and that they shared a "common destiny", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

In rare hearing, Pentagon reports rise in UFOs in past 20 years

Yahoo – AFP, May 17, 2022

A screen grab provided by the Pentagon in April 2020 from a video showing
"unidentified aerial phenomena" (AFP/Handout) (Handout)

An increasing number of unidentified flying objects have been reported in the sky over the past 20 years, a top US defense official told lawmakers Tuesday in the first public hearing on UFOs in half a century. 

"Since the early 2000s we have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft or objects in military controlled training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace," Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence, told a House security panel. 

Bray attributed the rise to efforts by the US military to "destigmatize the act of reporting sights and encounters" as well as to technological advances. 

However, he said the Pentagon had detected nothing "that would suggest it's anything non-terrestrial in origin" behind these phenomena. 

On the other hand, Brey also did not definitively rule out that possibility. 

"We've made no assumptions about what this is or isn't," Bray said. 

In June 2021, US intelligence had already claimed in a long-awaited report that there was no evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials in the skies, while acknowledging that they had no explanation for dozens of phenomena observed by military pilots. 

Some could be explained by the presence of drones or birds creating confusion in the radar systems of the US military. 

Others could stem from tests of military equipment or technologies carried out by other powers, such as China or Russia. 

The US military and intelligence are primarily interested in determining whether these aerial objects may be linked to threats against the United States. 

"Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are a potential national security threat. And they need to be treated that way," said Democratic Representative Andre Carson of Indiana, who was chairing the panel holding the hearing.

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift.

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

Kalush Orchestra - Stefania (Official Video Eurovision 2022)

Karine Jean-Pierre named as first Black W.House press secretary

Yahoo – AFP, May 5, 2022 

Karine Jean-Pierre speaks at a briefing in the White House in November
2021 (AFP/MANDEL NGAN) (MANDEL NGAN)

US President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre as the next White House press secretary, the first Black person to hold the high-profile post. 

Jean-Pierre, who will also be the first openly LGBTQ+ person in the role, will replace Jen Psaki, under whom she served as deputy, from May 13. 

Biden in a statement praised Jean-Pierre's "experience, talent and integrity," saying he was "proud" to announce her appointment. 

"She will be the first black woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as the White House Press Secretary," Psaki tweeted after the announcement. 

"Representation matters and she will give a voice to many, but also make many dream big about what is truly possible." 

The outgoing press secretary, who said from the outset that she would step down during Biden's term, is due to join MSNBC, according to US media reports. 

Jean-Pierre, 44, worked on both of former president Barack Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and then on Biden's campaign in 2020 before joining Biden's team at the White House. 

She also served under Biden during his tenure as Obama's vice president. 

Haitian parents 

Jean-Pierre was previously Chief Public Affairs Officer for liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org and worked as a political analyst with NBC and MSNBC, the White House statement said. 

Raised in New York, French-speaking Jean-Pierre was born in Martinique to Haitian parents who emigrated to the United States, where her father drove a taxi and her mother worked as a cleaner. 

It was in New York that she took her first steps into politics before also becoming a leading figure in the non-profit sphere, having graduated from the prestigious Columbia University. 

Jean-Pierre has often said her family's background, emblematic of the "American dream," was a determining factor in her career. 

An advocate for combatting mental health stigma, the new White House spokeswoman has also shared her own stories of being sexually abused as a child and suffering from depression. 

In a book published in 2019, she wrote of "the pressure of growing up in an immigrant household to succeed." 

"That pressure grew so big, and my sense of failure so strong, that I felt like my family would be better off without me. At one point, I attempted suicide," she said in a post published on the MSNBC website. 

"I am everything that Donald Trump hates," said Jean-Pierre, who has a daughter with her partner, a journalist with CNN, in reference to Biden's predecessor in a 2018 video for MoveOn.org. 

"I am a Black woman. I am gay. I am a mom." 

In a Twitter post marking LGBTQ Pride month in June 2021, she said her "journey towards feeling accepted by myself and loved ones wasn't an easy one, but it was worthwhile." 

"No matter where you are in your journey, I see you, we see you and we celebrate you."