Sweden News USA ESTA Travel Pass

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged the U.S. Congress on the 3rd to process the budget for modernizing nuclear forces necessary to defend South Korea and its allies.

At the Reagan Defense Forum held in Simi Valley, California, on the same day, Secretary Austin explained the U.S. efforts to strengthen war deterrence, saying that the next few years will determine the competitive landscape with China and the security future of Europe.

As one way to ensure deterrence, he said, “deterrence means safe, reliable and effective nuclear weapons as the ultimate defense against strategic aggression against our country and its allies, including NATO, Japan and South Korea.” said.
“That’s why the fiscal year 2023 budget includes a budget of $34 billion (about 44 trillion won) to continue modernizing the three nuclear forces (intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers, and nuclear submarines) and strengthening nuclear command and control communications capabilities,” he said.

“The Department of Defense is focusing more on the Indo-Pacific, which is a major theater of war, and is working to mobilize and deploy US forces more quickly,” Austin said. “We are investing in military construction, logistics and facilities in the region.”

He also said the United States is enjoying a significant increase in combat capability through the alliance, and that Australia is working together to ensure that conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines are available at the earliest possible time.
“China is the only country with the will and increasingly power to reshape regional and international order according to authoritarian tendencies,” he said.
“We will maintain and strengthen our capabilities to wage war advantageously so that China will never conclude that war is the best course of action,” he said. did.
“Great powers must not be reckless, they must act responsibly. They must communicate honestly and respect the systems of international law, alliances, norms, and agreements that have been difficult to build but which have made us all safer and more prosperous,” he said. “He urged.
He also strongly condemned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and expressed his strong will to continue supporting Ukraine and defending its NATO territory.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia and other major non-OPEC oil producing countries, ‘OPEC Plus’ (OPEC+), have decided to continue their policy of cutting production by 2 million barrels per day.

In a statement issued after a regular ministerial meeting on the 4th, OPEC+ announced that it would maintain the production cut policy agreed upon at the last meeting.

OPEC+ said in a statement that it “will observe future crude oil markets and respond immediately if necessary to balance supply and demand and stabilize prices.”

In October, OPEC+ held a regular meeting and agreed to reduce crude oil production by 2 million barrels per day from November and keep it until the end of next year.

Currently, oil production by OPEC+ producers stand at 41.85 million barrels per day, down 2 million barrels from October.

OPEC+, which decided to cut production the most since the Corona 19 pandemic, argued that it was an economic decision due to growing market uncertainty, such as heightened concerns about a recession at the time.

The U.S. and European countries, which were trying to contain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and control inflation, condemned the oil-producing countries’ decision.

Kuwait Energy Minister Bader al-Mullah said that the decision to maintain production cuts was a decision that helped stabilize the market.

The next OPEC+ regular ministerial meeting is scheduled for June 4 next year.

Foreign media such as Reuters reported that the OPEC+ decision came as the European Union (EU), the G7 countries, and Australia agreed to set the price ceiling for Russian crude oil at 60 dollars (about 80,000 won) per barrel.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak argued that “Rather than supplying oil below the price cap, Russia will reduce production, and this action by the West may affect other oil-producing countries.”

Reuters, citing sources, said that during the OPEC+ meeting on the day, ministers from several oil-producing countries expressed concerns about the introduction of the cap on Russian crude oil.

As the health care system shook during Corona 19, as many as 40 million children around the world were found to have failed to get the measles vaccine.

“Record numbers of children without immunity to measles show that the defense system has been severely damaged during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CDC Director Rochelle Wolensky.

Last year, 9 million people were infected with measles worldwide and 128,000 people died.

There is no specific treatment for measles, and two doses of the vaccine can prevent 97% of serious illness or death.

Earlier, the United Nations also said in July that 25 million children had not been vaccinated, including against diphtheria, due to COVID-19.

Currently, the vaccination rate among American infants and toddlers under the age of two is about 90.4%, far below the minimum defense level of 95%.

Earlier, the United States declared measles eradication in 2000, and there were cases of infection of 649 people in unvaccinated areas in New York in 2018 due to local epidemics introduced from abroad.

According to a paper published in July, more than 13% of children are vulnerable to measles as measles vaccination has declined during the pandemic in the United States.

In particular, the fact that about 20 unvaccinated children were infected in Columbus, Ohio, and about half were hospitalized, “could be an ominous sign to come,” a public health professor at Emory University in Atlanta diagnosed.

According to India’s PTI news agency, in Mumbai, the largest economic city, 12 people died of measles this year, including an 8-month-old baby who died on the 22nd. Including this, the number of measles cases in Mumbai this year was 233, a significant increase from last year’s total of 92.

Mumbai’s health authorities said about 20,000 people were not vaccinated against measles in time because of the pandemic.

The federal government’s Ministry of Health has dispatched emergency support and investigation personnel to related areas, saying that measles patients are also appearing in northern Bihar and western Gujarat.

Even if he did something bad by chance, if he covers it up with a good deed, he will light up the world like the moon escaping a cloud.

Believing in the evil master’s words that only by killing a thousand people and making a necklace of a thousand fingers can one attain perfect spiritual practice, he turned into a murderer and tried to harm even the Buddha, but was influenced by the Buddha, and as a result, he was stoned by the crowd and willingly died. This is the Buddha’s song in honor of Angulimala.

Death row inmate Jarvis Jay (photo source-Tricycle), who is imprisoned at San Quentin Prison at the northern end of Richmond Bridge, Northern California. He did not commit murder like Angulimala, but like Angulimala, he is branded as a murderer and is waiting for death in prison. The story of Jarvis, recently re-introduced in Lion’s Roar and Tricycle, two representative Buddhist media outlets in the United States, begins with his unfortunate childhood.

Born in Long Beach, Southern California in 1962, he grew up as a troubled boy who ran away from home and became violent despite his mother who was a drug addict and the care of his aunt who replaced his mother. He denied the charges but was helpless at the false testimony of his fellow prisoners.

In 1990, he was introduced to his Buddha teachings through a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Chagdudu Tulku Rinpoche, who visited the prison. He encounters Sasangje and vows to become a Bodhisattva. Meanwhile, his fellow prisoners recanted their false testimony, and in 2001 another prisoner admitted to making the weapon. He has written a book (“That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man Awaiting Death Penalty” in 2009) showing how Buddhism has changed his life and has given counseling and lectures to inmates several times.

However, his murder was not cleared. The county court has repeatedly dismissed his appeal. He is now preparing a case in federal court.

The US military’s secret unmanned spacecraft, the X-37B, returned to Earth on the 12th after completing an orbital mission for two years and six months.

Boeing, which developed the spacecraft, issued a statement on the same day, and announced that the X-37B had landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Launched in May 2020, the X-37B set a record by successfully orbiting for 908 days on its sixth mission. The previous record was 780 days achieved during the 5th flight.

The X-37B has increased its flight time each time since its first mission in April 2010.

“The X-37B broke (flight) records, giving the United States an unbeatable ability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” Boeing said.

The X-37B, operated by the U.S. Space Force, is a remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicle powered by solar power. It has a length of 9m and wings of 4.5m, and resembles the space shuttle retired in 2011, but is about a quarter the size.

The X-37B has flown over 1.3 billion miles in all six missions. It flew in Earth orbit for a total of 3,774 days, exceeding 10 years.

In this flight, X-37B measured what changes occur when seeds are exposed to cosmic radiation for a long time to be used as NASA research data, and the US Air Force Academy’s small research satellite ‘Falconsat-8′ placed

Analysts say that this experiment was related to developing a technology to transmit power to a remote military base by creating a space solar power plant.

“This mission demonstrates the Space Force’s focus on collaborating on space exploration and expanding partner agencies’ low-cost space access capabilities,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman of the U.S. Space Force.

The U.S. military says the X-37B is focused on scientific experiments, but because the spacecraft will fly in Earth orbit for a long time, there are constant observations that the spacecraft will perform secret missions shrouded in mystery.

In fact, apart from the science experiments that are partially disclosed, most of the flight activities and payloads of the X-37B are classified as classified, according to Space.com, a media specializing in space.

The Space Force does not publicize the details of the X-37B’s flight trajectory, nor is it giving advance notice when the mission will end.

Because of this, China and Russia regard the X-37B as a secret US offensive weapon.

Ahead of today’s election, 61% of Los Angeles voters cited the issue of homelessness as the city’s top priority. It was followed by crime, security enhancement, and housing problems, accounting for 38% and 36%, respectively.

According to a recent voter survey conducted by the Southern California News Group (SCNG), more than three-quarters of voters in Los Angeles said homelessness had worsened in the past few years. Additionally, a study of Los Angeles voters found that more than a third said they were concerned about the recent surge in the homeless population and that solving homeless problems should be a top priority for the city in the Los Angeles mayoral election.

In the survey, SCNG asked, “Do you think the problem of homelessness in your community today has improved, worsened, or remained the same compared to years ago?” In response, 76.8% of the total respondents answered that the homeless problem had worsened. Of these, 87% Republicans, 74.4% Democrats, and 74.6% independents.

According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Administration (LAHSA) homeless count as of February 2022, released in September, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County stood at 69,144, an increase of 4.1% from two years ago. The slower-than-average increase in homelessness has been the result of city, county, and state funding efforts in recent years to provide homeless shelters and permanent homes.

However, in Los Angeles County, only 30% of the homeless population is currently sheltered. The remaining 70% are still without shelter, forced to stay on the streets, under freeway bridges, in parks and rivers, and require proper care. About 30% of the county’s homeless population is black and 44% is Latino.

It also found that around 40% of homeless people are suffering from substance abuse or serious mental illness. This shows that homelessness is disproportionately affecting low-income people of color, such as blacks and Latinos.

A report published by MedicalNet highlighted that a growing number of voters are dissatisfied with their communities because of the ubiquity of homeless tents. It is causing various problems such as deterioration of the living environment of the homeless, the urgency of beautifying the streets, discord with nearby business owners and residents, an increase in crimes against or perpetrating the homeless, and creating anxiety among residents.

Meanwhile, two candidates, Rick Caruso and Karen Beth, who are in a fierce battle in the LA mayoral election, are promising various solutions, citing the problem of homelessness as an immediate task for the city government to solve.

A woman from Kansas, USA, who trained more than 100 female troops for joining the Islamic State (IS) group was sentenced to a heavy sentence of 20 years in prison, NBC and CBS reported on the 2nd.

According to reports, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, sentenced Alison Fluke-Ekron, 42, to 20 years in prison and 25 years of probation on charges of serving as a recruit training instructor for ISIS.

Fluke-Ekron has been charged with training and providing supplies to more than 100 ISIS women in Syria between 2016 and this year. He admitted to her allegations at her trial, stating that he regretted her own choice.

He allegedly forced her daughter to marry an IS agent when she was 13, and encouraged her son to leave the United States and come to Syria to become an IS fighter.

Prosecutors charged him with child abuse, but he denied the charges.

He was arrested in Syria in January of this year and handed over to the FBI.

Fluke-Ekron, who worked as her original teacher in the United States, left for Egypt with her husband in 2008, where she joined IS. Her husband, who accompanied her at the time, became an IS sniper instructor, and was later killed in an airstrike in Syria.

Fluke-Ekron, who is also fluent in Arabic and Turkish, has since stayed in Libya and Iraq before moving to Raqqa in northern Syria in 2016.

Here, he trained female ISIS fighters in the women’s unit known as Kativa Nusaiba, how to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and self-destruct belts.

It was also revealed that he planned an attack on the US mainland.

The plan was even approved by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then head of the Islamic State, but was thwarted when he was killed in a US surprise attack.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (57, Minjoo), who is challenging for re-election, has declared the 35th Corona 19 disaster and extended the period of emergency rulership until after the midterm elections.

According to Illinois media, Center Square (CS) and Illinois Polus (IP) on the 20th, Governor Pritzker said on the 14th that “I have confirmed that there are still disasters in Illinois,” and visited all 102 counties across the state. It has been re-declared as a disaster zone.

This includes everything from Cook County, which has a population of 5,173,000, to Hardin County, which has a population of 3,650.

In this regard, the IP issued by the think tank ‘Illinois Institute for Policy Studies’ stated, “Based on the 11th of next month, when the new emergency situation ends, the period during which Governor Pritzker exercised sovereignty over the law by emergency order without congressional consent is in office. It is 975 days out of 1,398 days,” he said.

“Governor Pritzker’s repeated disaster declaration undermined the original purpose of the Illinois Emergency Measures Act,” said WirePoints, an Illinois watchdog group.

The residents of Illinois, including Chicago, have endured business closures, mandatory masks, vaccinations, and school classes online in accordance with the emergency rules unilaterally set by the governor without going through Congress for 950 days since March 2020.” With this disaster declaration, the governor explained that he could impose new regulations again at any time.

The Democrat-majority legislature could put the brakes on the governor’s move, but it didn’t, the WP said.

Congressman Stephen Rick (Republican) of the Joint Administrative Rules Committee (JCAR), a bipartisan group that oversees rulemaking by Illinois state agencies, said, “Governor Pritzker has declared several COVID-19-related disasters 35 times. “We have to go back to ‘normal’,” he said.

According to the WP, states near Illinois have already ended their state of emergency related to the coronavirus long ago. Michigan lifted its disaster declaration two years ago and Wisconsin a year and a half ago, and other state governors also relinquished their emergency powers at least six months ago.

Governor Pritzker said the main reason for maintaining the disaster declaration was “to support low-income families with additional federal assistance.”

IP added that there are currently three disasters declared across the state of Illinois.

As early as 7th, the U.S. government will announce new export controls that make it difficult for China to obtain the equipment it needs to produce advanced semiconductors.

Although the measure is aimed at China’s semiconductor industry, it is expected that it will inevitably affect domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which operate factories in China.

The telecoms said that exports to foreign companies that produce memory semiconductors in China will undergo a separate examination on a case-by-case basis, and this is highly likely to be approved.

An official said, “The purpose of this regulation is not to hurt companies other than Chinese companies.”

The new sanctions require U.S. companies that want to sell cutting-edge technology to Chinese companies that produce 18nm or less (nanometer, 1 billionth of a meter) DRAM, 128-layer or higher NAND flash, and 14nm or less logic chips to obtain a separate license. known to be

However, the permit standards are practically impossible to meet, Reuters reported.

Foreign companies that make the same semiconductors in China must also obtain separate approval to purchase US-made equipment, but they will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Telecommunication analyzed that foreign companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are free from the direct impact of this measure, which is aimed at Chinese companies first, but it is expected to have a direct or indirect impact on the domestic industry as the new stricter screening standards are applied.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to have no problems maintaining production at the current level, but if they plan to expand their production capacity or produce more advanced semiconductors in the future, they will have to obtain US permits to import necessary equipment from their Chinese factories. Because.

According to a diplomatic source, the US informed the South Korean government of the details in advance and went through several discussions before finalizing the measures.

The government plans to discuss licensing procedures with the U.S. government in the future so that there is no setback in the operation of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix factories in China.

The US government is of the view that the measure is aimed at freezing China’s semiconductor technology to the current level.

Therefore, there is an analysis that the long-term profit for Korean companies may be greater in that the US will check the technology acquisition of China, which has narrowed the gap with Korea at a frightening speed.

President Joe Biden has been emphasizing economic security, such as strengthening checks against China, protecting cutting-edge technologies in key industries such as semiconductors, and rebuilding American industries right after taking office.

In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), global supply chain disruptions have continued, adding more weight to economic security.

The US also included a so-called ‘guard rail’ clause that prohibits investment in high-tech facilities in Chinese factories for 10 years if it receives US government subsidies while processing the semiconductor law.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has decided to automatically extend the validity of permanent residency to two years if immigrants with permanent residency apply for renewal (I-90) on time before the expiry date of their current green card.

USCIS said in a press release last week that it would implement the policy. This measure came into effect on September 26, last year.

USCIS, which is experiencing a severe backlog in immigration application documents due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has implemented a measure to automatically extend the validity period of existing permanent residence cards for one year from the expiration date for permanent residency renewal applicants. However, this time the period has been doubled to two years.

This measure is intended to relieve applicants who have applied for permanent resident card renewal before the expiration date of their permanent resident card and have not been issued a new permanent resident card due to a backlog of procedures.

USCIS specifies that the two-year automatic extension of the validity period of the permanent resident card is specified in the notice of receipt to applicants who file Form I-90 to renew their permanent resident status, so that permanent residents who file the renewal application will receive this notice even after the expiration date.

Meanwhile, USCIS is implementing a measure that automatically extends the validity period of the work permit (EAD) to a maximum of 540 days from last May as a similar measure.

If you apply for renewal before the expiration of the validity period of your work permit (EAD), even if you do not get approval, the temporary regulation is in place to automatically extend the validity period up to 540 days after the expiration date. The period has been extended to 360 days, which has been increased to three times.

This measure is also due to the fact that the number of backlog of work permit applications (I-765) has reached 1.5 million since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in cases in which applicants for work permit renewal who did not get approval in time are inevitably forced to stop working or take a leave of absence. There is it followed.

Applications for renewal of work permits can be made up to six months before the expiration of the deadline. USCIS estimates that more than 400,000 foreign workers with work permits will benefit from the extension of the automatic extension of work permits.