Author: GIKorea

Expect to see more of this in the South China Sea as China uses civilian vessels to enforce their territorial claims. Fortunately for these 22 Filipino fishermen they were rescued by a Vietnamese fishing boat before they all drowned:

China has acknowledged its fishing vessel hit a Filipino boat in the disputed South China Sea in an incident that prompted an outcry in the Philippines but denies the collision was intentional.

The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest after Filipino fishermen said a Chinese vessel rammed their anchored boat on Sunday night then abandoned them as the boat sank in the Reed Bank. Philippine officials strongly condemned the reported Chinese action.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila said late Friday that the Chinese vessel accidentally hit the Filipino boat as it tried to maneuver while being “besieged” by several Filipino boats. It said the Chinese captain tried to rescue the Filipinos but was afraid of being besieged by other boats.

“There is no such thing as ‘hit-and-run,'” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement, citing the result of a preliminary investigation.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

As I thought this would turn out to be, more fake news:

When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

The sergeant major told investigators she spotted something amiss with Valdovinos’ hair under a hijab, a head covering commonly worn by Muslim women.

“Even though Sgt. Valdovinos was wearing a religious head cover, I could see that the bulk of her hair did not meet regulatory standards,” Montoya wrote, citing an Army rule that requires women to wear long hair in a bun.

Montoya talked to a chaplain and her boss, a female captain, before taking a step that wound up going viral worldwide: She took Valdovinos and the captain outside for a closeup inspection of the sergeant’s hair.

Valdovinos removed her hijab as ordered, but then complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and its founder Mikey Weinstein, who launched a media offensive, with the Muslim sergeant as the star of the show. Newspapers as far away as Great Britain picked up the tale, along with television networks and websites by the dozen.

“I felt naked without it,” Valdovinos told the Colorado Springs Independent. “It’s like asking you to take off your blouse. It felt like I was getting raped, in a sense.”When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but she brought up this hijab-gate controversy after she was facing punishment for an inappropriate relationship which she was eventually found guilty of and demoted for.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Here comes another badge for U.S. Army soldiers to train for:

Soldiers outside the infantry, combat medic and Special Forces fields will soon have the opportunity to earn a badge acknowledging their experience at critical skills, the Army announced Friday on the service’s 244th birthday.

The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command recent approved the long-anticipated Expert Soldier’s Badge, which will be awarded to top performing soldiers who pass a test demonstrating their prowess in physical fitness, marksmanship, land navigation and warfighting, the command said in a statement. The badge will be the equivalent of the Expert Infantryman Badge and the Expert Field Medal Badge, and it is expected to be introduced in early fiscal year 2020, according tothe command.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Alternative headline: 6150 South Korean citizens want to give their money to an enemy regime that enslaves millions of their fellow kinsmen because they want to take selfies at a mountain. https://t.co/dBk6hsUvmg

— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) June 14, 2019

President Moon must be thinking he is going to convince President Trump into a “pretend denuclearization” deal when they meet later this month in South Korea:

The international community is “open to discussions on easing economic sanctions on North Korea” with security guarantees from the progress of the denuclearization talks, according to President Moon Jae-in on Friday evening (KST).

“The international community is ready to ease economic sanctions on North Korea and provide firm security guarantees upon the level of progress in the denuclearization talks,” Moon said during his major speech in the Parliament House of Stockholm, Sweden.

Korea Times

People best watch President Trump’s actions more than what he says. He is clearly talking nice about Kim Jong-un in an effort to keep dialogue open while at the same time continuing to enforce sanctions on them to pressure them into a deal:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to downplay North Korea’s recent missile launches amid assessments that they violated international sanctions.

In a phone interview with the Fox News program “Fox & Friends,” Trump said North Korea is “not testing nuclear and not testing anything.”

He said the North sent some short-range missiles out which he said “everybody else does too.”

Regarding alleged sanctions violations by Pyongyang, such as illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil, Trump said in the interview that “everybody tries to break sanctions” but that the sanctions are hurting North Korea badly and the U.S. “never took the sanctions off.”

Trump continued to note the U.S. has a “good relationship” with the North and that he is in no rush to resume negotiations for a nuclear deal.

KBS World Radio

It appears President Xi blinked on this attempt to further crackdown on Hong Kong’s independence. The people of Hong Kong best remain vigilant because I would not be surprised if this comes up again:

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam delayed indefinitely Saturday a proposed law to allow people to be extradited to mainland China for trial after wide spread anger and large-scale protests in the Asian financial hub.

In one of the most significant climb downs by the government since Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, Lam said the city’s legislature would stop all work on the bill. The next steps would be decided after consultations with various parties, she said.

About 1 million people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to protest the bill, according to organizers of the march. Street demonstrations throughout the week were met with tear gas and rubber bullets from the police, plunging the city into chaos.

The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or travelling in the city, has many concerned it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status.

Korea Times

Hopefully forensic investigators can quickly identify who the remains belong to:

 South Korean search crews working in the heavily fortified border area found a skeleton believed to be from an American or French soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, the defense ministry said Monday.
The remains were unearthed Wednesday during an excavation project at the former battleground known as Arrowhead Hill, which is in the Demilitarized Zone that has divided the country since the war ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
The area was cleared of land mines in the fall as part of an inter-Korean agreement reached in efforts to improve relations between the two countries in connection with separate nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.