Diplomacy & Crisis News

Ethen Kim Lieser

Economics,

Ok, so this is no OLED, but it can do the job.

If you’ve been in the market lately for a top-notch 4K HDTV, you might have run across offerings that were in the thousands of dollars.  

That might have made you take a couple of steps backward, but if you can stop only focusing on big-name brands like Sony, Samsung, and LG, what you’ll find is that there are indeed wonderful budget-friendly options out there.  

If you’re willing to think a bit outside the box, then take a hard look at TCL’s fifty-inch 4 Series 4K Roku TV, which is currently retailing for $280 on Amazon, which is a hefty savings of 42 percent.  

As the little brother of the Chinese tech giant’s highly regarded 5 and 6 Series 4K HDTVs, the 4 Series often gets lost in the shuffle during conversations about today’s top 4K panels. But know that despite the ridiculously low price point, this set can hold its own against other comparable panels that cost hundreds more.  

Boasting a minimalist and elegant design, the 4 Series packs enough punch for those who love action movies and graphics-intensive video games from PlayStation and Xbox. The panel does an outstanding job supporting the must-have HDR 10 and features low input lag and great response and processing time.  

The contrast ratio, black levels, and uniformity are also considered above average, but be aware that this set, like most non-OLED panels, does fall short in terms of wide-angle viewing.  

One of the best aspects is the built-in Roku TV, which, along with Android TV and LG’s webOS, is considered an elite option among all smart TV platforms out on the market right now—and to top it off, it’s basically free with the TV. 

Roku flaunts an incredibly intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it a breeze to quickly find what you want to watch for family movie nights. Toggling between your apps and devices is also a snap, as you don’t have to physically deal with all of the buttons and switches of separate devices. 

The streaming offerings on Roku are plentiful (likely more content than you can possibly handle), giving you simple access to just about every app available, including the usual favorites Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu. Also know that since the apps are built-in, you can get to them faster and more easily than via an external streamer.  

As for the sound, you really should think about whether you want to upgrade. The 4 Series comes with two 8W speakers that do support Dolby Digital Plus, but that setup might only work in smaller spaces. If you desire a more immersive, bass-driven audio experience, getting yourself a decent soundbar will probably help immensely.  

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.  

Image: TCL.

Stephen Silver

Technology,

Billions and billions of dollars will be spent on new smartphones, that seems certain.

Next week is a huge one for the widespread adoption of 5G, with Apple scheduled to unveil its first-ever 5G iPhones, with the “Hi, Speed” event that’s scheduled for next Tuesday. This follows a year in which most major smartphone manufacturers have made the move to offering 5G devices, and carriers have rolled out the technology, to varying degrees.

According to new numbers released this week by Strategy Analytics, the 5G market will post major growth this year- a 1,300 percent gain, in fact, to 250 million units around the world. And that’s only with the 5G iPhones on the market for the last part of the year.

“The 5G category is the main engine of smartphone growth today and for the next decade,” Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, the associate director at Strategy Analytics, said in the release. “The 5G category is the fastest-growing part of the smartphone industry today, but there remain several challenges. Many 5G smartphone models are too expensive, most 5G carrier networks are incomplete, while multiple waves of coronavirus are causing consumer fatigue in Western markets like the US and Europe.”

The 250 million number is compared to just 18.2 million in 2019. And while Strategy Analytics did not release a forecast for beyond 2020, that number will presumably grow in future years.

Strategy Analytics added that China and the United States are the top markets for 5G, and that “Apple iPhone, Huawei, and Samsung are the top-three brands that together will capture two-thirds of all 5G smartphone sales globally this year.” This is despite Apple not releasing its phones until the fall, and Huawei being unavailable in the United States.

Another survey this week, though, shows just how much confusion there is about 5G technology. 

A Global Wireless Solutions survey finds that 49 percent of iPhone users believe that they already own a 5G device, when—since the first 5G iPhone is yet to be introduced—none of them actually do. 

Meanwhile, 29 percent of overall smartphone users “are unsure whether their phone is capable of accessing 5G,” while that’s even the case of nearly a quarter of those who bought their smartphones this year.

In addition, GWS asked users when they expect to see “meaningful 5G benefits,” and over 50 percent answered either “sometime this year” or “sometime next year.” About 4 percent answered, “not in my lifetime.” 

“Wireless carriers and mobile device manufacturers have made important 5G investments, but our survey demonstrates that market education is still required to help consumers better understand how 5G can impact their lives in a positive and meaningful way,”  Paul Carter, Founder and CEO at GWS, said in the release of the survey.

“But given the fact that 64% of consumers plan to buy a smartphone between now and the end of 2021, there is clearly an opportunity for 5G to drive enthusiasm for new products and services—assuming consumers better understand the benefits of the next-generation wireless technology.”

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

The move to reopen a public beachfront, backed by Turkey, comes amid escalating tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

China is among three additional countries to have signed on to a global initiative that aims to ensure fair and equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine once developed, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday. 

Peter Suciu

Security,

Simply put, the carrier has to adapt for the changing world of the twenty-first century to remain relevant. Otherwise it risks sailing off into the sunset like the battleship or worse being an expensive target in a future conflict.

The last “battleship battle” has gone down in history as a one-sided slaughter when the United States Navy destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy’s battleship Kirishima during the Battle of the Surigao Strait on October 25, 1944. As part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf, that particular engagement marked the last battleship-to-battleship in history and was one of only such fights between the capital warships in the entire Pacific campaign of the Second World War.

While the battleship’s role in navies around the world for another fifty years, and it wasn’t until Operation Desert Storm in 1991 that marked the last time that U.S. Navy battleships fired their guns in anger when the USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin conducted standard naval artillery support.

One hundred years ago the battleship ruled the wave—but World War II proved what Gen. Billy Mitchell and other aviation supporters already knew: that the aircraft carrier would be the future. The United States had been a pioneer in naval aviation when a flight deck was erected on the forecastle of the cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-2), but the Royal Navy’s HMS Furious was the first warship to be refitted to operate as a carrier. The Japanese would subsequently launch the Hōshō, the first purpose-built aircraft carrier.

For one hundred years the carriers have gotten larger and more powerful—and are arguably far from obsolete.

Yet, there are reasons to question the long-term future of aircraft carriers. Interesting Engineering addressed the issue this month, highlighting the time and cost to build carriers. During World War II, the United States went from having just a handful of carriers to save the day during the Battle of Midway, to literally having a massive fleet of the flattops by war’s end.

It is not hyperbole to state that the U.S. Navy had more carriers than it knew what to do with—but today it still maintains eleven supercarriers, with talk of keeping some of the aging carriers around a bit longer than expected. The reasoning is that it takes a massive amount of time to build a carrier—upwards to five or six years but that is only to the commissioning. Sea trials take an additional two to three years. The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) took eight years to build. 

Anti-Ship Weapons 

With the introduction of new warships, military thinkers sought ways of both protecting their ships but also ways to sink their enemy’s vessels. The battleship proved especially vulnerable to new weapons notably from the airplane—as the Royal Navy found out in the most horrific way in December 1941 when HMS Prince of Wales was sunk.

During the Cold War, the great threat to U.S. Navy carriers had been Soviet submarines, but today the aircraft carrier could face even more powerful threats including so-called carrier-killer missiles and nuclear-tipped torpedoes. Such weapons could mean that carriers would need to operate far from enemy waters and increasingly far from enemy territory.

That could seriously limit a carrier’s effectiveness given the combat range of aircraft.

The Future Carrier 

The carrier likely won’t go away, but it may need to evolve to stay relevant. This could include a shift away from the massive supercarriers of the U.S. Navy and a move to smaller amphibious assault ships that can operate with short vertical takeoff and landing (SVTOL) aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Additionally, unmanned drones could be developed to operate from these smaller flattops. They would have the added benefit of being cheaper to build and can stay in the air for extended periods, Interesting Engineer noted. Moreover, unmanned aircraft don’t require added time in pilot training—and could address the military’s pilot shortage.

The carrier may evolve in other ways, and perhaps we could see a reconsideration of submersible aircraft carriers, which could surface to deploy those unmanned drones and then dive to avoid being targeted by an enemy’s hypersonic missiles.

Simply put, the carrier has to adapt for the changing world of the twenty-first century to remain relevant. Otherwise it risks sailing off into the sunset like the battleship or worse being an expensive target in a future conflict.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Kyle Mizokami

Security,

Upon his capture, Saddam Hussein was carrying one.

Here's What You Need To Remember: Federal firearms laws regulating automatic weapons, for the most part, keep the Glock 18 out of civilian hands, although a handful of guns exist in the hands of shooting ranges and private collectors. The fully automatic pistol is available for police and government purchase in the United States but without the benefit of frequent, expensive training it’s difficult for even the largest police departments to justify the cost.

In December 2003, soldiers of the U.S. Special Operations Command captured the Ace of Spades himself, Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi president, on the run since the capture of Baghdad, had appeared in a deck of playing cards with the profiles of other fugitive war criminals and naturally was the top card. Hussein, bedraggled and bereft, was armed with one of the rarest of handguns: the Glock 18, the full auto Glock.

In February 1980 the Austrian Army issued a requirement for a new handgun. Gaston Glock, a knifemaker who made knives and bayonets for the army, decided to try his hand at the gun manufacturing business. After buying and trying many types of existing handguns, consulting with firearm specialists to see what they would like in a handgun, and a presumably a great deal of trial and error, Glock’s first pistol, the Glock 17, won the army contract for twenty thousand pistols.

Glock’s handgun design, an early adopter of the use of polymers to reduce weight, made the pistol relatively lightweight and easy to carry. The seventeen round detachable box magazine was much larger than most handguns of the time. Recoil from the nine millimeter ammunition was quite manageable. An emphasis on mechanical reliability made the Glock 17 an attractive choice for police and special operations units that used handguns as their duty pistol, especially in offensive roles.

In the mid-nineteen eighties Austria’s counterrorism unit Einsatzkommando Cobra, part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, approached Glock and asked if the company could create a full auto version of the Glock 17. The company was successful and named the gun Glock 18, due to its similarity to the original gun but obvious differences. Technically the Glock 18 is a machine pistol, or a pistol-sized weapon capable of fully automatic fire.

The Glock 18 is dimensionally very similar to the Glock 17, with only a handful of differences. One difference is the presence of a turret-shaped selector switch on the right rear side of the slide. Turned clockwise up, the Glock fires in semi-automatic mode, and each pull of the trigger fires a single round. In this mode the Glock 18 is indistinguishable from the Glock 17 in operation.

Turning the selector switch counterclockwise down, on the other hand, turns the Glock 18 into a fully automatic weapon with a rate of fire nearing Germany’s fearsome MG42 machine gun. In fully automatic mode the Glock 18 has a rate of fire of 1,200 rounds per minute.

While the Glock 17’s recoil is very manageable, a rate of fire for 1,200 rounds a minute was something else entirely. Early Glock 18s had ported barrels that vented gunpowder gases in a direction to counteract barrel climb. However, this increased overall pistol length and created a situation where the gas ports could catch on clothing while being drawn—not a great feature for undercover work. The Glock 18 also includes an optional wire frame shoulder stock to aid in accuracy.

A later version, the Glock 18C, has a two inch cut in the top of the slide to expose the barrel. Cut into the barrel are four chevron-shaped cuts designed to vent gases upward, countering the upward barrel rise when firing fully automatic. As a result the 18C has fewer surfaces to obstruct drawing, and at first glance doesn’t look any different than a semi automatic Glock.

The Glock 18 accepts typical Glock magazines, from ten to seventeen rounds, but a handgun with a rate of fire of 1,200 rounds a minute can empty a standard pistol magazine in a blink of an eye. In order to help feed the Glock 18’s voracious appetite the company released thirty-three round magazines. These longer magazines extend far past the magazine well, making the gun difficult to conceal but double available firepower.

Federal firearms laws regulating automatic weapons, for the most part, keep the Glock 18 out of civilian hands, although a handful of guns exist in the hands of shooting ranges and private collectors. The fully automatic pistol is available for police and government purchase in the United States but without the benefit of frequent, expensive training it’s difficult for even the largest police departments to justify the cost. This specialized weapon may be fun to shoot, but it has little practical value outside of units such as EKO Cobra. For the foreseeable future, the Glock 18 will remain a rarity that roars at 1,200 rounds a minute.

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009, he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. This article first appeared last year.

Image: Reddit.

Ethen Kim Lieser

Technology,

If you’re in the market for a no-frills budget HDTV option that just gets the job done for your bedroom, den, or kitchen, make sure to take a long hard look at this outstanding offering.

Expectations are indeed running high for the fast-approaching Amazon Prime Day, which is set to run for two days on October 13 and 14.

During this annual deal event, members of Amazon’s Prime subscription program will receive access to “over one million deals across every category,” including toys, electronics, and apparel, according to the company.

But if you just can’t wait that long, there are plenty of pre-Prime Day deals to take advantage of right now—one being the thirty-two-inch Toshiba Fire TV, which is retailing for a ridiculous sum of $120, a mammoth savings of 33 percent.

If you’re in the market for a no-frills budget HDTV option that just gets the job done for your bedroom, den, or kitchen, make sure to take a long hard look at this outstanding offering.

Sure, it doesn’t have the same VIP ring to it as an LG OLED or a Samsung QLED, but this particular set is definitely no slouch when it comes to pure value, and it can really hold its own compared to other bargain-bin finds.

Despite the ultra-friendly price tag, you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by what you’ll be receiving. No, this panel won’t come close to matching up with the much more expensive OLED and QLED sets, but this HDTV will silently chug along to show you the news, weather reports, late-night talk shows, and the latest movies hiccup-free.

What really jumps out at you is the clever tie-up that Toshiba has forged with e-commerce giant Amazon. If you’re already a big fan of Amazon Alexa, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t enjoy owning this set. Now with the highly regarded Amazon Fire TV and Alexa under its panels, it really has become that much more of a go-to option for budget-conscious consumers.

There is a mic built into the handy remote control, and with Alexa handling all communication between you and the TV, it’s like having an Echo or an Echo Dot without actually paying for one (knocking off $40 to $100 from the overall price of the TV). It can also control smart-home devices, get sports scores and weather forecasts, and answer all kinds of general questions.

Know that Fire TV is fully capable of giving you simple access to all of your favorite apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, as well as obviously Amazon Prime Video. Similar to Roku TV, Amazon’s streaming content choices are seemingly endless.

Be aware that the 12W speaker output is understandably lackluster, though it could be passable for smaller spaces. If you do desire a more immersive, bass-driven audio experience, getting yourself a decent soundbar will help out immensely.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Beijing’s foreign investments are often money-losing and driven by recipients’ own agendas.

Caleb Larson

History, World

These planes made their mark on the world of aviation.

Know This: These three planes represent some of the fastest birds to have ever flown.

MiG-25

One of the early jet fighters that can be counted among the fastest jets ever designed was the MiG-25. The Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich airframe made extensive use of stainless steel, as a typical aluminum airframe would not have been able to cope with the stresses at the high speeds the MiG-25 was intended for. The airframe’s more robust steel construction came at a cost, however. The MiG-25 was a beast of a plane and tipped the scales at about 64,000 pounds—without fuel or a full weapons load out—adversely affecting flight performance.

The heavy airplane was intended to be the Soviet Union’s premiere interceptor, and although it could achieve Mach 2.8 speeds, Soviet pilots were advised to not fly over Mach 2.5 in order to extend engine life. Still, one Mig-25 was tracked at Mach 3.2 over the Sinai Peninsula. The record flight came at a cost, however. After the flight, the airframe’s engines had to be written off.

Today, the MiG-31 is the successor to the MiG-25, and features similar, but improved design elements, including a two-man cockpit and around double the range of the gas-guzzling MiG-25. It is one of the fastest military aircraft currently in service today.

Concorde

On the commercial side of flight, the jointly Franco-British designed Concorde is the fastest commercial successful airliner ever. The iconic modified delta wing design could achieve sprints in excess of Mach 2, and set the record for fastest flight from London to New York in just over 2 hours and 52 minutes.

Fast thought the design was, it was severely hindered by its incredibly loud sonic boom. When flying over more densely populated areas, the Concorde has was forced to fly at subsonic speeds, increasing flight time for an aircraft designed to be the fastest commercial airliner ever, and ultimately contributing to the retiring of the airframe in the mid-2000s.

Blackbird Singing

The one bird that takes the cake set a number of speed records throughout its legendary career—the SR-71 Blackbird.

In the aftermath of Gary Powers U-2 spy plane incident (Powers was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile battery while overflying the Soviet Union. At the time, the belief was that the U-2 flew too high to be targeted by Russian SAMs), Lockheed’s Skunkworks designed an airframe that was unstoppable.

A number of exotic materials went into the design, including extensive use of lightweight and high-strength titanium, as well as a specially-formulated iron ferrite paint coating that was somewhat radar absorbent.

Rather than flying above or beyond Soviet SAM range, the SR-71 Blackbird could comfortably fly within airspace covered by anti-air batteries. If it detected a SAM launch, the Blackbird pilot would simply hit the thrust lever—outflying SAM missiles at speeds in excess of Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.

In 1976, the official Blackbird record was set at an altitude of 85,000 feet. On that fateful day, The SR-71 flew at a mind-numbingly fast Mach 3.3, easily outflying anything in existence. Though unofficial, another Blackbird pilot claimed to have blown past the 1976 record while on a bombing run over Libya. During that flight, the pilot claimed to have achieved a top speed of Mach 3.6.

Caleb Larson is a defense writer with the National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture.

Image: Reuters

As the COVID-19 pandemic increases gender, economic and racial inequalities, the UN on Friday marked the upcoming International Day of the Girl, with a youth-driven virtual townhall to demand a more just and equitable world for girls.

Stephen Silver

Politics, Americas

Will it help to stop any further surprises in 2020?

Social media firms were heavily criticized, during the 2016 election, of failing to do enough to stop the spread of false news, including some campaigns that were directed by from overseas by state-sponsored efforts.

Facebook and Twitter, especially, have made moves to avoid that mistake, including Facebook’s recent crackdown on QAnon, and both platforms’ moves to block or remove posts that spread coronavirus-related misinformation. Twitter even recently rolled out a prompt encouraging users to read entire stories, rather than share them on the strength of their headline, and cracked down on “copypasta.”

Twitter this year has removed tweets from President Trump, something it had always resisted doing in the past. When the president was hospitalized last week, it was widely reported that Twitter would remove any posts that openly wished for Trump’s death, although the company later clarified that “tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against *anyone* are not allowed and will need to be removed.”

With Election Day less than a month away, Twitter has announced some additional moves to prevent abuse of its platform.

Twitter said Friday that they will “not allow anyone to use Twitter to manipulate or interfere in elections or other civic processes.”

These steps will include removing any tweets, from candidates or anyone else, that “claim an election win before it is authoritatively called.” This means that such declarations will not be allowed until such a win has been declared by state election officials, or by “at least two authoritative, national news outlets that make independent election calls.” Such calls are made on election nights by the Associated Press, as well as the decision desks of television news networks and other media outlets.

Twitter will also remove posts that “encourage violence or call for people to interfere with election results or the smooth operation of polling places.” The rules, including one that bars interference with the election process, will apply to elections for Congress, in additional to the presidential race.

The company also said that starting later this month, users will be prompted with the note “this is disputed” when they attempt to retweet tweets that have been flagged by Twitter for being misleading. And Twitter will soon begin encouraging users to quote tweet rather than retweet others’ messages.

“Twitter plays a critical role around the globe by empowering democratic conversation, driving civic participation, facilitating meaningful political debate, and enabling people to hold those in power accountable,” Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s product lead, wrote in a blog post published Friday. “But we know that this cannot be achieved unless the integrity of this critical dialogue on Twitter is protected from attempts—both foreign and domestic—to undermine it.”

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

Stephen Silver

Technology,

Could it crack into the American market and fight Apple for a slice of the market?

TCL this week announced the launch of the TCL Tab, a new tablet being brought out in collaboration with Verizon.

While mostly associated with TVs, TCL has been releasing products in the United States in other categories, including the TCL Pro smartphone, which arrived in the spring. Now, the TCL Mobile devision has also brought out a tablet, as part of a collaboration with Verizon.

The TCL Tab weighs 11.5 ounces and comes with 4G LTE capability. It also offers an eight-inch Full HD+ display and comes with Android 10 pre-installed. The device, which does not come in a WiFi-only version, is available now and retails at $199.99, in Suede Black color.

“There has been a large increase in demand for affordable tablets capable of supporting in-home initiatives for learning and working, while also keeping the entire family entertained and connected,” Eric Anderson, Senior Vice President of TCL Communication, North America, said in the announcement.

“With the TCL TAB, we have engaged with Verizon to create an Android tablet that will provide family households with the network and tools necessary for both a productive and entertaining mobile experience.”

Android tablets have been around since 2009, even before the debut of the iPad in 2010, but most of the early ones, such as the Verizon-exclusive Motorola Xoom, failed to displace Apple’s tablet. Eventually, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire emerged as the main challengers to Apple in the category, although the competition has never been especially close.

As of last month, per Statcounter, Apple held nearly two thirds of the North American market share in the tablet category, with Amazon and Samsung second and third, each with just over 13 percent of the market. This was roughly even with where those numbers had been for much of the last year.

Beta News describes the TCL Tab as a “spiritual successor to the Nexus 7,” which it describes as “undoubtedly the greatest Android tablet of all time.” The Nexus 7, which Google developed along with Asus, released two generations but was discontinued in 2015.

Along with its new mobile endeavors, TCL continues to release well-received TVs, mostly with the Roku TV interface, although the company has started to put out lower-end models with Android TV.

Trendforce said this week that a record number of TVs were shipped in the third quarter of 2020, and that TCL moved 7.33 million units, representing a 29 percent increase quarter over quarter and a 52.7 jump year over year. That was good for third worldwide, behind only Samsung and LG, both of which are more established as global TV brands.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: TCL.

Pence and Harris talked about international politics at the debate, but their performances will leave voters asking if they would be ready to act as commander in chief.

But equality is still a long way off.

Rachel Bucchino

Politics,

Republicans will turn up the heat on Democrats over court-packing as the Amy Coney Barrett hearings begin next week.

Republicans continue to press Democratic nominee Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in recent days over whether the pair would “pack” the court if conservative-leaning Amy Coney Barrett gets a seat on the bench, a question that the two have avoided to answer. If the Democrats were to proceed with court-packing, it would represent a momentous step that would erode another guardrail of American democracy and turn the court into a rubber stamp for the president rather than a separate branch of government. The last time it was attempted was in 1936, when Franklin Roosevelt suffered a humiliating defeat in Congress after he tried to add new members to the Supreme Court. Would Biden and the Democrats seek to go down the same road?

Biden faced the court-packing question at a campaign stop in Phoenix on Thursday, providing yet another bland response. “You will know my opinion on court-packing when the election is over,” Biden told reporters at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “The moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that rather than focusing on what’s happening now. This election has begun. There’s never been a court appointment once the election has begun.”

Court-packing — a radical idea that broadens the highest court by adding more judges than what exists now — would tilt the Supreme Court to be more left-leaning if Biden is elected and Democrats rally enough federal level support to pass the law. Although the constitution doesn’t state how many justices must sit over the court, Republicans argue that there have been nine justices on the Supreme Court for well over a century, so swelling the bench would radically interfere with the highest court’s practice and history.

“I think the reason they won’t answer it is because their answer is yes,” Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) told the Daily Caller on Thursday, “and they know that’s incredibly impossible so they’re trying to hide just how radical their agenda is.” “They are ready to pack the court. If they win, if they take a majority, if we have Biden, Schumer and Pelosi in charge, I believe they will pack the court,” Cruz added.

At the vice-presidential debate Wednesday night, Vice President Mike Pence pressured Harris to provide a clear answer if the Democratic ticket plans to pack the court, accusing her of giving a “non-answer” when asked about the issue in the past. Harris refused. “The American people deserve a straight answer,” Pence said. "And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the straight answer is they are going to pack the Supreme Court if they somehow win this election.”

The issue of court-packing resurfaced after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in mid-September when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed to push for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before Election Day. If the Republican-controlled Senate passes Barrett’s nomination, she would become the third Supreme Court justice appointed by Trump and potentially impose an ideological tilt that would put conservatives in power on the bench, 6 to 3.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told his colleagues that “everything Americans value is at stake” if Senate Republicans convene to fill Ginsburg’s seat, as the lifetime appointment would mend ideology on the highest court for generations. Schumer, who potentially faces a challenge from AOC in 2022, moved decisively to the left: “Let me be clear: If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans move forward with this, then nothing is off the table for next year. Nothing is off the table.”

McConnell, the leader of the effort to swiftly fill the vacant seat, has been labeled as a hypocrite by Democrats because he blocked Merrick Garland, an appeals court judge, when former President Barack Obama nominated him to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia after he passed away in February 2016, arguing that the nomination should wait until after voters decide the 2016 election. The majority leader added that a vacant Supreme Court justice seat should not be filled during election season, a reversal from his initiative now.

Whether Biden and Harris will seek to pack the court if Barrett is granted the seat, in the event that the Democratic ticket wins the election. Nearly 11 candidates during the Democratic presidential primaries were open to the idea of court-packing, including Harris. Biden, however, did not support it “because we’ll live to rue that day,” he said last July. “We add three justices; next time around, we lose control, they add three justices,” Biden said last October. "We begin to lose any credibility the court has at all.”

If Biden provides a clear indication that he intends to pack the court, the stance would likely deter moderate or independent voters that he needs to win the tight race to the White House. In recent weeks, Biden said giving a response to the question “will shift the focus” of the election.

“That’s what [Trump] wants. He never wants to talk about the issue at hand and he always tries to change the subject. … The discussion should be about why he is moving in a direction that’s totally inconsistent with what the founders wanted. The Constitution says voters get to pick a president who gets to make the pick and the Senate gets to decide,” Biden told WBAY News last month. “We’re in the middle of the election right now,” he added. "You know, people are voting now. By the time this Supreme Court hearing would be held, if they hold one, it’s estimated 30 to 40 percent of American people already have voted. It is a fundamental breach of constitutional principle. It must stay on that and it shouldn’t happen.”

As the Barrett hearings next week loom large, however, Republicans will turn up the heat on Democrats over their court-packing plans. It could prove to be a potent political weapon in a turbulent election.

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.

Image: Reuters. 

Kris Osborn

Security,

The military wants to use lots of unmanned-manned and unmanned-unmanned pairings to win on the battlefield.

The Army’s use of manned-unmanned teaming, wherein human operators control air and ground robotic vehicles to conduct reconnaissance, carry supplies or even launch attacks has long been underway. This developmental trajectory is demonstrated by the Army’s most recent successes with unmanned-unmanned teaming. 

Progress with drone to drone connectivity, from ground to ground and ground to air is fast gaining momentum following successful recent experiments where the Army passed key targeting data from larger drones to smaller mini-drones in the air. This happened in September at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., during the Army’s Project Convergence experiment, wherein the ability to massively shorten sensor-to-shooter time and network time-sensitive combat information was demonstrated between drones. 

During the experiment, an Army Gray Eagle drone networked with a forward operating mini-drone called Air Launched Effects. This, as Army leaders described, extended the range, scope and target envelope for attack missions well beyond “line of sight” and what service leaders described to me as the “visibility line.” Moreover, Gen. John Murray, Commanding General of Army Futures Command, told The National Interest that more drone-drone operations were planned for coming years. 

“You saw unmanned-unmanned teaming with two air vehicles that were completely autonomous. We are going to continue to expand that. Next year, we are looking at four and then we will continue to scale that up,” Murray said at Project Convergence in Yuma. 

The technology is also connecting ground-operated robotic vehicles to aerial drones through platforms such as Textron Systems Ripsaw vehicle. The RIPSAW M5 medium-sized Robotic Combat Vehicle, now being developed as part of an Army program, is an armed robot-vehicle engineered with advanced sensors, scalable armor, high-fidelity targeting sensors made by FLIR Systems, weapons and advanced algorithms for autonomous navigation and networking operations. 

Textron developers emphasize that the RIPSAW is built to be scalable, meaning it can accommodate different weapons, suspension, drive-train and chassis configurations. It also has a diesel range extender which allows it to expand its combat range out to 400 miles. 

In recent experiments and tests with the Army, Textron has demonstrated the ability for the RIPSAW to operate in conjunction with an aerial drone called SkyRaider. The ability for a ground robot vehicle to share surveillance, targeting and force-position data with an aerial drone brings new tactical dimensions to ground warfare. Of course it increases stand-off range for human soldiers operating in a command and control capacity, but also expands the scope of the battlefield, something the Army expects will greatly impact the future of warfare. As sensors and weapons-ranges continue to expand, areas of combat operations will only become larger, better networked and more dispersed. A forward aerial drone could, for instance, operate over hostile areas to identify points of entry for robotic ground vehicles to attack enemy fortifications. 

Kris Osborn is defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Image: Textron.

Martin Weiser

Security, Asia

This story illustrates what is wrong with coverage of North Korea. Too many assume North Koreans believe anything.

Since April, academics and politicians in South Korea have been rushing to address the problem of false reporting on North Korea. Progressive legislators held a discussion with civil society in May on how to respond to fake news on North Korea, while Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies recently published a report and then a whole book on the topic.

The instigator was an April DailyNK report that sparked global rumours about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s supposed ailing health and possible death following heart surgery. The outlet later issued a correction after several reporting mistakes came to light — ‘heart surgery’ was in fact a cardiovascular procedure and ‘sources’ was actually a single source. When Kim Jong-un appeared in early May after an unusual absence, he did have a mark on his right wrist that could imply a medical procedure, but South Korean intelligence had long stressed there were no signs of health problems as alarming as speculated.

The story made clear that sensationalist reports on North Korea cannot be blindly trusted — the context, ambiguities, inconsistencies and news agency biases have to be carefully considered in the process of digesting information on North Korea. Anonymous single sources strongly colour what information eventually reaches readers.

Despite renewed vigilance, in late May another apocryphal story reached a global audience thanks to South Korean media. South Korean outlet Dong-A Ilbo and others reported that North Korea’s newspaper of record Rodong Sinmunhad finally ‘debunked the myth of Kim Il-sung’s teleportation ability’. South Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo claimed this was a ‘rare admission’ from North Korea, adding that ‘some bright spark in the propaganda department in the 1950s invented the story’.

Radio Free Asia even quoted the South Korean Ministry of Unification as stating it ‘marked the first time that [North Korean] state media flatly denied that a Kim family myth was true’. In South Korea, the story found its way onto television via Chosun Ilbo-affiliated ChosunTV, declaring that this was the first time the North had made such an acknowledgement. Broadcaster KBS reached an even wider South Korean audience with their ‘Inter-Korean Window’ segment reproducing the same narrative.

All of these assertions were so outrageously wrong it is surprising that no outlet or scholar, South Korean or foreign, sought to set the record straight.

The actual story published in Rodong Sinmun on 20 May was a reprint of a Kim Il-sung anecdote that quoted him as saying: ‘Actually, humans cannot move by folding space and disappearing and reappearing’. This was part of his response when asked in November 1945 about his apparent ability to ‘teleport’ (chukjibop) — employing stealth tactics to evade capture as a guerrilla fighting the Japanese.

Rodong Sinmun’s 20 May story did not reveal a new ‘rare admission’, as South Korean outlets claimed — and versions of it had previously been published in the North already in 2015 and 2018 in the same newspaper. Just months after Rodong Sinmun first featured the story in 2015, South Koreans were still told by Yonhap that Kim Il-sung is deified in Northern schools using his alleged ability to teleport as an instance. The 2015 and 2018 North Korean reports included that same sentence on teleportation being impossible, but it was only in May 2020 that reporters took an interest.

The earlier North Korean reports could have been found easily. Journalists just needed to search the Rodong Sinmun website for the word ‘teleportation’ to find the 2018 report. South Korea censors all North Korean websites, but journalists are not deterred by this as the reporting demonstrates.

Even easier would have been to use commercial services like Korea Press Media or KCNAWatch, which few South Korean media outlets seem to do, though the South Korean state has censored these as well. In any case South Korea’s main library for North Korean material, run by the Ministry of Unification, offers a database that no journalists seem to have used to confirm fact.

The original source for the story appears to be a major North Korean publication, the Anecdotes on Kim Il-sung Collection, released in a number of volumes between 2013 and 2017. Volume six, covering November 1945, was released in 2015, coinciding with the first time the story was run by Rodong Sinmun.

This makes it impossible to tie Rodong Sinmun’s 20 May ‘admission’ to the failure of the 2019 Hanoi Summit or some recent propaganda strategy of Kim Jong-un, as some South Korean outlets claimed. And South Korea’s Ministry of Unification never stated that the May 2020 piece was the first time that North Korea had denied the ‘myth’. Radio Free Asia was the only outlet that carried this claim and it is not included in their Korean version. There are also no sentences in the Korean article that could be misunderstood that way. Either the translator or the English writer, known for omitting or bending fact, generated this Ministry ‘quote’ without an editor catching the additional fake news.

This story illustrates what is wrong with coverage of North Korea. Too many assume North Koreans believe anything. Few appreciate that the North Korean government holds dear the socialist dogma, one that inherently assumes religion, magic and unicorns as blatant superstition. Reporters need to be more willing to invest time and care in reporting on North Korea for accuracy and integrity, lest they become what they mock. For now, too little is done to catch or correct blatant mistakes, whether internally or externally and before publication or after, making healthy discussion around North Korean issues ever more difficult.

Martin Weiser is an independent researcher based in Seoul.

This article first appeared at the East Asia Forum.

Image: Reuters.

Religious violence is growing despite the pandemic.

Years of diplomatic efforts have failed, but the two sides will need to talk to prevent a regionwide war.

Ethen Kim Lieser

Technology,

Could TCL breakout from being known for HDTVs and make a big move into smartphones? This new phone screams a resounding yes. 

Chinese tech giant TCL is more well known for its strong lineup of budget and mid-tier HDTVs, but it is also trying to gain some global traction in the smartphone market.

It appears that the company has found a winner with its 10 Pro—which was released in late spring—and can now be had for a bargain-bin price of $380 (be sure to clip the coupon) on Amazon.

This particular model, often seen as a strong competitor to the Samsung Galaxy A line and the iPhone SE, is perfect for those who want to stay in the Android universe and not break the bank—but know that it still packs plenty of punch.

What immediately strikes you is the highly attractive sleek and modern design. And the screen—a curved 6.47-inch AMOLED display—that it contains is immersive, vibrant, and sharp, perfect for watching TV shows and movies and scrolling through social media sites. You can also rest easy knowing that the display has full-HD resolution and HDR 10 certification.

Also know that multitasking likely won’t be an issue, as the 10 Pro boasts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor and the 6 GB of RAM is more than enough for everyday usage. Even while gaming, the experience is excellent overall despite sometimes stretched out load times. There’s also 128 GB of storage, of which 113 GB is available out of the box.

The 10 Pro features a healthy set of cameras that can get the job done—just not on the levels of higher-end and more expensive smartphones out there. The quad-lens camera system combines a 64-megapixel primary wide-angle shooter with a 16-MP ultrawide one, a 5-MP macro camera, and a 2-MP sensor that is more for low-light shots. Not to be outdone, your selfies will be taken by a 24-MP camera.

For some people, the camera lenses ramp up the saturation too much, which do provide plenty of color, but the end result is that photos often lose its more lifelike aspects. Still, for a sub-$400 phone, it’s hard to be too critical of the cameras.

If you’re worried about getting through a full day without charging your smartphone, you can rest assured that the 10 Pro will surpass your expectations. TCL’s offering comes with a generous 4,500-mAh battery that has been shown to keep the device running for eleven to twelve hours—that’s markedly better than the Galaxy A51 and iPhone SE. However, be aware that wireless charging is not supported.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.