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The Western world, in the midst of being primed for a war with China, often has a limited understanding of who this supposed enemy is. Is it a communist force ready to challenge the U.S.s capitalist and hegemonic structure? Is it an economic ally providing an indispensable factory floor for our corporate interests? Or is it somehow a combination of both? Joining host Robert Scheer this week on Scheer Intelligence is Suisheng Zhao, professor and director of Center for China-U.S. Cooperation at the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies, who hopes to provide clarity to these ever growing questions.

His new book, The Dragon Roars Back: Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese Foreign Policy, attempts to frame China and its history for todays moment in time. It demonstrates that it was never just communism that drove China to be the world power it has become but rather nationalism. Zhao focuses on three leaders in Chinas contemporary history, who serve to represent this dragon that has roared back to the world: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and their current president Xi Jinping. Zhao and Scheer go back and forth, diving into the nuances of each rulers time and their relation to the international order.

[The Chinese leaders] are all first nationalists, then Communist Party members. They all share the same dream to make China prosper and [be] powerful and also redeem the so-called century of humiliation, Zhao says. These are the dragons roaring back, and under their leadership, China will not be denied its place in the world. This place was once respected and a sort of peaceful balance was achieved during the era of Nixon and Mao. Fast forward to today however, and, despite successful economic interdependence being achieved between the two countries, the U.S. has rejected the possibility of a multipolar world with its advances in Taiwan, and this can of worms that Nixon and Kissenger worked to quell has suddenly burst again.

Scheer and Zhao agree on what The Dragon Roars Back strives to clarify: I think what your book challenges is the centrality of the enemy that we had after World War II, of an ideology of communism, and says the real problem is nationalism and that China, with its great history and its importance, is driven by nationalism, which is now threatening our view of the world, Scheer says. This nationalism and enormous success under Xi, Zhao responds, is now challenging U.S. predominance in the world, which perhaps the U.S. cannot accept.

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The China Dragon Roars Back Whether the US Likes It or Not - KCRW

Members of the digital ID communities in the United States and European Union talked up the federated approach to digital IDs last week at the ID4Africa 2023 AGM.

A fair question after each presentation would have been, are either the U.S. or the E.U. the best models for African nations looking to create a continentwide interoperable ID system?

The EUs effort (much like its still-forming AI Act) lies under volumes of files of memos of rules and regulations.

And it is optimistic in the extreme to think the U.S. is moving to any kind of coherent ID system. Whole swaths of the nation see Biblical evil, communism or White replacement in a digital ID that is no different in substance than a physical drivers license.

Unperturbed by these realities, Gail Hodges, executive director of the U.S.-based OpenID Foundation, and Didier Trutt, chairman of the European nonprofit Security Identity Alliance, addressed the topic at the conference in Kenya.

There are 69 jurisdictions mostly the 50 states, which of each run ID and driving license operations relevant to digital identification in the U.S., Hodges pointed out (startling but there are more than 1,000 jurisdictions of all kinds in the state of Illinois alone).

OpenID has done some groundwork in the country. Hodges pointed out that digital ID standards have been adopted in the business world, including by Apple. But digital ID standards have not touched a large majority of its adults.

Recognizing that a vocal segment of Americans do not want anything to do with government, OpenID is pushing a system that is centralized on private and/or public sector wallets.

Under this scenario, the states would continue to collect and safeguard ID data but would provide public keys to one commonly held, nationwide digital trust service, Hodges said. All relying parties would go to the trust service.

People would have the power and responsibility to choose who see what personal data.

The federal government can get into digitals through a side door most Americans accept through airlines, trains and ships. The Department of Homeland Safety, she said, is asking all states to perform self-assessments to make sure they conform with DHS identification standards created to reduce terrorism.

Trutt said the European digital wallet program will be based on each member state issuing IDs under a notified digital ID scheme built on common standards.

High levels of assurance will be maintained, he said, with compulsory certification.

And there is a proposal for an EU toolbox that defines the digital ID framework.

The session wrapped with an emphatic plea from Joseph Atick, executive chairman of ID4Africa.

Enrollment is yesterdays problem, Atick said. Momentum and public engagement will die if we dont enable the correct interoperable ID verification in support of ID use.

His message seemed aimed at governments that are perhaps near reaching ID enrollment of their populations. Some have not moved ahead with issues like identity verification, which typically is a more difficult phase of creating a digital ID program.

Wallets, he said. You need to build that into your future, along with the interoperability of trust, public key infrastructure, decentralization options.

Things are not getting simpler, Atick said. African leaders need to keep pushing on each phase.

Africa | digital ID | digital wallet | ID4Africa | ID4Africa 2023 | interoperability | OpenID | OSIA (Open Standards Identity API) | Secure Identity Alliance | standards

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EU, US might not be best digital ID models, but they can help African ... - Biometric Update

Only about half of Canadians are old enough to remember watching the fall of the Berlin Wall live on television. Fewer still are old enough to recall the Polish communists brutal crackdown on protesters in the long December night in 1981.

This likely explains why, according to a recent poll, 50 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 believe that socialism is the ideal economic system for their country.

For more than two centuries, socialism has captured the hearts and minds of youth everywhere. Its obvious why: socialisms promise of equality and unparalleled prosperity is alluring.

But for more than four decades in the 20th century, actual socialism captured more than hearts and minds. It captured one-third of the globes inhabitants and subjected them to a grand social experiment. In our new book (coauthored with Konstantin Zhukov) we document the results of this experiment, focusing on the experience of Poland.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels claimed that socialism would deliver such an abundance of goods that it would be able to satisfy the needs of all its members. But it didnt work out that way. By the 1980s, Polish per-capita production was just 39 percent of that of the United States.

The average Pole had to work nearly 13 times as long as the average West German to make enough money to buy a TV. And nine times as long as West Germans for cars, twice as long for beef and pork, and nearly three times as long for chicken. Compared with Westerners, only a fraction of Poles had telephones, cars, or homes. Poles waited 15 to 30 years for housing. In the last 15 years of Polish socialism, life expectancy declined.

While most Poles went without necessities such as feminine hygiene products, the elite were able to shop in special well-stocked stores. They paid no taxes. They vacationed in their own resorts. They had their own pension plans and health care.

Because socialist economies were so inefficient, they used more natural resources than capitalist economies even while they produced less output. For example, for every dollar of GDP it produced, the Polish economy used more than three times the amount of steel as did the United Kingdoms economy.

Socialist countries were also notoriously polluted. In Poland, the amount of sulfur oxide in the air per person was nearly three times the amount in West Germany and more than six times the amount in Austria. A 1991 article in the Washington Post described Warsaws tap water as yellowish-brown from the tap, laced with heavy metals, coalmine salts and organic carcinogens. It stains the sink, tastes soapy and smells like a wet sock that has been fished out of a heavily chlorinated swimming pool.

Marx thought capitalist workers would eventually revolt. But in socialist Poland, the workers turned on the workers party and the socialist state. In 1981, thousandsmostly women and childrentook to the streets of Krakw, d, and cities across Poland to protest the deplorable economic conditions. Their signs read We want to eat, How do you eat ration coupons? and, in an obvious reference to the closing lines of the Communist Manifesto, The hungry of all countriesunite.

In December, the government sent 140,000 men into the streets to round up troublemakers. Some 10,000 were arrested and 200,000 were fined. When they came for Lech Walesa, one of the leaders of the protests, he told his captors: This is the moment of your defeat. These are the last nails in the coffin of communism. He was right. The socialist experiment had run its course.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polands first non-Communist prime minister, promised a return to a market-oriented economy. Poland, he said, cannot afford ideological experiments any longer. Decades of shortages ended in weeks. Hyperinflation was tamed. Growth rates more than doubled. And life expectancy began growing again.

Those of us who dream of a better society should never forget the terrible lessons of the socialist experiment.

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Opinion: Young Canadians should learn about the Polish ... - The Hub

Published 8:14 pm Sunday, May 28, 2023

Were on the cusp of another Memorial Day this Monday, May 29, 2023. Its a day when so many of us unconsciously think about being off from work; planning a family cookout and/or shopping the sales from store to store those are all good things, but only if we take the timefirstto consider what this annual holiday truly represents.

Memorial Day, initially named Decoration Day, is a day we remember those who have died serving our United States of America. When you think about it, its sad. Its a day acknowledging all who lost their lives for our country, doing their duty in very challenging circumstances, facing death head-on and likely having suffered before their last breath. God bless our brave men and women who lost their lives never to see their loves ones again while fighting for our freedom, against oppression, communism and tyranny God bless them all. Too often we get caught up in wishing others a Happy Memorial Day as if it is something to celebrate.

This very special day came about during the Civil War ending in 1865 to honor our incredibly brave and patriotic military personnel who died while serving. It is something we should all be cognizant of and thankful for at the same time. We have been a free country because we have had dedicated protectors throughout centuries stand between us and the demise of our greatness. I hope that all who have died in the battlefield, jungles, mountain tops, deserts and at sea felt our respect, our admiration, our pride in them before they drew their last breath. I can only hope.

So when were out and about this weekend and we see a veteran, think just for a minute that it could have been them we honor as having sacrificed their life, or their best friends with whom they served that are no longer here and just say, Thank you. They are beautiful gems they are precious stones, solid and perhaps hardened inside from their experiences in war and conflicts. God bless all our military, here at home and those deployed wherever they may be.

If you wish to attend any of the Memorial Day services this Monday, our Dare County schedule is as follows:

9 a.m. Southern Shores Cemetery, 68 S. Dogwood Trail, Kitty Hawk

10 a.m. Austin Cemetery, 4321 Rogers Street, Kitty Hawk

11 a.m. Manteo, 300 Queen Elizabeth Ave. (downtown,Dare County Veterans Memorial)

11 a.m. Nags Head Town Hall, 5401 S. Croatan Hwy.

12:30 p.m. Kill Devil Hills, Dare County Veterans Memorial, Memorial Dr. off Colington Rd.

No doubt by this time most of you have seen our beautiful signs boasting our incredible event coming this November on the Outer Banks The Wall That Heals. Signs have been established at the site of the Dairy Queen in Kill Devil Hills and at the midway intersection in Manteo. The design of the signs is well done with the very recognizable Vietnam Service Medal Ribbon depiction. It is the hope of the Dare County Veterans Advisory Council (The Wall That Heals Committee) that the signs will encourage countless people, especially Vietnam veterans and their family members/friends, to attend the upcoming event. Though Ive made numerous references about the dates in prior Gig Line columns,the schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, Nov. 14: it is scheduled to arrive in Dare Countythrough Manns Harbor and from the north end of Manteo before it heads east at Midway Intersection by CVS to the Nags Head Event Site.

Wednesday, Nov. 15: The Wall That Heals construction will begin. Once erected that day, the public is welcome to attend and because it will be lighted, everyone is welcome 24 hours a day

Thursday, Nov. 16:10 a.m. Opening ceremony.

Friday, Nov. 17:Evening candlelight service honoring those veterans who have died since returning home from Vietnam.

Saturday, Nov. 18: No designated activities.

Sunday, Nov. 19: The wall will close down at 2 p.m. to prepare for departure.

The event will befree no admission and lighted at night, hence being open 24 hours a day until it closes down to leave our area.

One of our local Vietnam veterans told me recently that not only is he looking forward to attending The Wall That Heals, but that he plans to wear his U.S. Army Ranger uniform when he does. Personally, I look forward to seeing him in his uniform; hes is a nice man who loves our country and hes just written a book (arriving any day) about his service in Vietnam. Ill be writing about it and how to go about ordering one in next weeks Gig Line. I have had the privilege to review it in his process of preparing to send it off to be published and I not only learned a lot but found it hard to put down its that good!

Until next time, be healthy, safe and happy. Love on our veterans because they sure deserve it! For official help with filing a V.A. claim, getting a duplicate DD-214, etc., please contact Patty OSullivan, V.S.O. at office: (252) 475-5604; cell: (252) 473-7749 or email: patricia.osullivan@darenc.gov. If youwould like to read previous Gig Line columns, go to http://www.giglineheroes.comand if you just want to chat, call me on my cell: (252) 202-2058 or email me:giglineheroes@aol.com.Ill be thinking of you all; thanking the Lord for each one of you and loving yall from the bottom of my heart. God bless you all and everyone you love. Please pray for our country, our troops and our politicians to do the right thing in all the decisions they make for the good of our American families first and foremost. Stay tuned!

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Gig Line: Memorial Day - The Coastland Times | The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

Reds na hireann explores communism in 20th Century Ireland, The Great British Sewing Bee returns, Rose Byrne and Seth Rogan star in Platonic, while American Born Chinese features Michelle Yeoh . . .

Reds na hireann, 9.30pm, TG4

Here's something a little quirky a documentary exploring communism in Ireland until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Back in the days when the catholic church ironically ruled Ireland with Stalinist zeal, Uncle Joes Irish admirers werent many, but they were certainly committed to the communist cause.

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Through intimate, irreverent and entertaining interviews and a rich cache of archival footage, it traces the rise, challenges and impact of communism on Irish politics, society and culture.

The film climaxes with the Soviet Union's collapse and reflects on communism's legacy in Ireland.

Here's my interview with director Kevin Brannigan.

Mark Moriarty: Off Duty Chef, 8.00pm, RT One

Streaming on RT Player

This week Mark demonstrates different ways to cook lamb, beginning with a boulangere, layering thinly sliced potatoes and tender meat in a casserole dish and baking it to perfection.

He then takes inspiration from his recent honeymoon in Greece and shows how to make a gyro, marinating and grilling the lamb and assembling it in a warm wrap with a tangy tzatziki sauce.

Gaelic in the Joy, 9.35pm, RT One

Streaming on RT Player

Following the encouraging performance in their first game, Philly McMahon and Rory O'Connor are feeling more confident.

But then the governor of Mountjoy Prison drops the bombshell that the prison officers want the game of gaelic football to be 15-a-side.

With the team struggling to find any more players, Rory has an idea on how to recruit more players and organises a challenge game against ex-prisoners and staff from the Solas care after-prison group.

The Great British Sewing Bee, 9.00pm, BBC One

As the latest season begins, Sara Pascoe, Patrick Grant and Esme Young welcome 12 new sewers to the competition in Leeds.

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For their first pattern challenge, the sewers make a top with a twist at its centre to give them a straightforward construction task with an added brain teaser.

In the transformation task the competitors take the traditional `office uniform" of a pencil skirt and a blouse and make it reflect their own style.

Finally in the made-to-measure challenge, the contestants try to perfectly fit a dress with cut-out details.

Peaky Blinders, 9.35pm, RT2

Starring Cillian Murphy, Natasha O'Keeffe, Paul Anderson and Sophie Rundle, the final season of this BBC period gangster drama begins.

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Tommy Shelby (Murphy) sets off to North America, where the end of Prohibition brings opportunities, but he faces new danger from an old adversary who is finally making his move.

In his Boston hotel room, Tommy takes a call and receives very concerning news, forcing him to cut short his trip and head straight back to Birmingham.

Platonic, Apple TV+

Rose Byrne and Seth Rogan lead the charge in this new comedy about two friends who reconnect in mid-life.

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Sylvia and Will (Byrne and Rogan) are platonic pals who more or less pick up where they left off decades before.

The first three episodes of season one are available immediately and the rest will be released on a weekly basis until the final episode drops on July 12.

American Born Chinese, Disney+

This action comedy series is based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang and stars Michelle Yeoh.

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Jin Wang, a high schooler struggling with his school and home life, meets Wei-Chen, the new Taiwanese exchange student at his school.

Then a sequence of events lead him to become involved in a battle between gods of Chinese mythology.

James May: Oh Cook! Prime Video

Former Top Gear co-presenter James May is not a chef. Which is the whole point of this new series.

This is kind of like Cooking for Dummies as the premise is that you dont need to be a brilliant cook to make delicious food.

Transporting viewers to the Far East, the Med, and the local pub all from the comfort of a home economists kitchen the man called May will knock up delicious recipes that pretty much anyone can actually make.

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Kids, 9.00pm, Channel 4

As this documentary series concludes and they approach adulthood, Havana and Kane try to make sense of their pasts.

Sixteen-year-old Havana no longer sees her mum and has never known her dad but with help from the service she hopes to find her father.

After spending his childhood in multiple foster placements and children's homes, Kane returns to Coventry to be near his mum but wants to understand why he was taken into care in the first place.

11 Minutes: Americas Deadliest Mass Shooting, 9.00pm & 9.45pm, BBC Two

The FBI joins the investigation into the attack on the 2017 Las Vegas Harvest music festival, as doctors concentrate resources on treating the wounded most likely to survive at overwhelmed local hospitals.

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Then at 9.45pm, the final episode takes a look at the impact the attack on the 2017 Las Vegas Harvest music festival had on survivors.

Many are still searching for closure, while for some the bond they formed that night with strangers restored their faith in humanity, while for others activism is a way to channel their grief.

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What's on? 10 top TV and streaming tips for Wednesday - RTE.ie