Washington: US President Joe Biden has said that the last three of the four aerial objects shot out of the skies were probably balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions; but the fourth was a Chinese spy and “I make no apologies”, he added, for bringing it down.
Biden said that he ordered the shooting of the remaining three “due to hazards to civilian commercial air traffic and because we could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities”.
The American President acknowledged that the US knows nothing about these three, which were shot down on consecutive days last week – one over Alaska, the second over Canada in a joint operation with Canada, and the third over the American midwest.
Biden said further that he has asked for a new protocol for dealing with these kinds of unidentified aerial objects.
The Chinese spy plane, which started this shooting spree, was shot down by a US F-22 on February 4 off the coast of the American state of South Carolina on the western coast. It had been floating above the US mainland for more than a week, hovering over sensitive installations.
The Chinese owned up and expressed regret, saying the airship was studying weather and had gone off course.
The US declared the aerial intrusion as a violation of its national sovereignty and Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his visit to Beijing to express US displeasure more forcefully.
Relations worsened as an exchange of sharp words followed, especially after Biden seemingly taunted the Chinese President Xi Jinping in his state of the union speech, saying, no world leader would like to trade places with the Chinese leader because of the spy balloon incident.
Biden sounded reconciliatory on Thursday, reiterating that the US doesn’t seek a conflict with China and it also doesn’t want a new cold war.
“This episode underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between our diplomats and our military professionals,” Biden said, adding, “Our diplomats will be engaging further, and I will remain in communication with President Xi.”
Sometimes they appear in the form of an orb of light, high in the sky, that seems to pass through solid objects such as trees and buildings. Sometimes it’s a strange mist that descends out of nowhere. In an increasing number of cases, an object that can’t be seen with the naked eye shows up clearly in a photographic image.
These are examples of UFOs – literally, unidentified flying objects – that are spotted in UK skies every day. In the wake of the US shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, plus three other objects it has yet to identify, experts say there are going to be a lot more of these kinds of sightings. As a UFO researcher, I treat these things with scepticism and scientific rigour, but part of me hopes they will never be fully explained.
As the head of national investigations for the British UFO Research Association (Bufora), I’m one of a team of people who investigate such sightings, which are sent to us by the public at a rate of hundreds a year. Often they come as grainy mobile phone footage taken at dusk or from a moving car, but we also require witnesses to fill in a detailed form explaining what they saw, heard, felt and even smelled at the time of the event. We promise to treat sightings confidentially, objectively and with scientific rigour. In 98% of cases, we find they have a simple explanation.
‘When Elon Musk’s SpaceX first launched its Starlink satellites in 2019, we were inundated with sightings of small pinpricks of light moving steadily across the night sky.’ Starlink launch, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
Typically, when we receive a report at Bufora, I take a look and pass it on to our photographic analyst, Mark Easen. Objects most commonly turn out to be drones, aircraft (sometimes military aircraft), satellites, meteors, balloons, lanterns or birds. When Elon Musk’s SpaceX first launched its Starlink satellites in 2019, we were inundated with sightings of small pinpricks of light moving steadily across the night sky, sometimes 50 or 100 at a time. By finding out where witnesses are at the time and what airports, military bases or other facilities are nearby, we can usually identify the objects they’ve observed. It’s important to know what they’ve seen with the naked eye, because often a UFO will turn out to be a speck of dust on the camera lens, a tiny insect flying into shot or the reflection of a seatbelt buckle in a car window. First, we rule out the obvious. If it looks like a plane and flies like a plane, it’s usually a plane.
Reports follow patterns and trends that reflect the changing media landscape. In our not-too-distant past, unexplainable phenomena tended to be reported as fairies or goblins – things people saw in the folklore and mythology of the day. Now, sci-fi books and films affect the way people interpret what they have seen. There’s a particular type of sighting that we call high strangeness sightings (HSS), when someone feels they have been up close and personal with something of unknown origin – and during the 1990s, when The X-Files was hugely influential, as many as 8% of sightings reported to us were HSS. They’re usually rare, but I saw them increase again during lockdown. People were scared, and understandably so.
‘During the 1990s, when The X-Files was hugely influential, many sightings reflected the TV series.’ Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
I became interested in space when I lived in the US in the 1970s and early 80s, where my dad was an aeronautical engineer for Nasa. But I’ve always been interested in extraordinary human experiences – things outside the boundaries of what we understand. The UFO subject embraces a huge and diverse landscape: science, religion, folklore and myth, the paranormal, neuroscience and philosophy. I’ve learned a lot about the way memory works: once you lay down an experience into long-term memory, each time you access that memory it is slightly edited. You add to it things you’ve seen, conversations you’ve had, a TV programme you saw. I never think people are foolish when they report a UFO; I’m just fascinated by the ways we interpret reality.
I’m often asked what I believe about extraterrestrial life, and whether it will ever make contact. After all, about 2% of the UFOs we hear about can’t be identified – yet. In all the years I’ve spent looking at the evidence, I have never seen any definitive proof that a UFO has been extraterrestrial in origin, but I don’t close my mind to the possibility. I’m sceptical – to do this work properly I have to be. But, as JBS Haldane wrote: “It is my suspicion that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
Personally, I think there will be a rational explanation for the objects that have been shot down by the US military recently. But there are still mysteries, and I think there always will be. I wonder what narratives humans will invent to explain the sightings of tomorrow, and what science fiction will come up with next. Will science and expert analysis be able to explain all of these things, eventually? I suspect not. I hope not.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Ford workers will build both nickel cobalt manganese and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries at the facility, slated to come online in 2026, while CATL will continue to own the technology to create the cells and be contracted to provide some additional services.
When asked about the political risks of working with a Chinese company, Lisa Drake, Ford vice president of EV industrialization, emphasized on a call with reporters Monday that it’s a “very global marketplace” especially when it comes to EV batteries. She also noted that while LFP technology already exists in the U.S. — although not yet at Ford — the new project will allow the company to de-risk the process in this country, where Ford has control.
“It’s more control over the technology choice,” said Drake.
Drake also addressed concerns that the Chinese government could move to block the use of its technology. “We certainly thought through that, and those are provisions and things that we’ve agreed with CATL in the course of our contract work with them,” she said. “Of course, we’ve thought about it, and we’ve taken care of those, the optionality, in the contracts.”
Ford’s decision to build and operate in Michigan was driven by the newly minted Inflation Reduction Act, Drake said, and company officials said they’re confident the newly produced batteries will qualify for all of the production tax credits under the law, for both the cell and module, as well as commercial and lease customers. But Ford officials said questions remain for outright consumer purchases given there are income qualifications.
“I think the IRA was incredibly important for us, and, frankly, it did what it intended to do and it allowed the United States to capture 2,500 fantastic technical jobs and all the indirect jobs that go with it, as well as the future growth” said Drake. “A big win for the U.S.”
Top Biden officials, including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, have said a surge of federal cash tied to newly passed laws like the Inflation Reduction Act could turn the state into a new hub for pumping out batteries for EVs by 2030.
More business, more scrutiny
Ford’s announcement arrives as Republican lawmakers scrutinize efforts to quickly electrify the nation’s vehicles — a push that at the moment leaves the U.S. relying on countries like China for critical minerals. That reality has been flagged on both sides of the aisle as a national security vulnerability (E&E Daily, Jan. 25).
Ford has moved to emphasize its work to uphold high environmental and human rights standards while also pivoting to dominate the EV and battery market, even as scrutiny around supply chains ramps up on Capitol Hill. Ford officials said they have audited supply chains since 2003 and insisted the company has a zero tolerance policy for child labor or forced labor.
The company touted the future use of LFP batteries in its F-150 trucks and Mustang Mach-E cars as a more affordable option that will enable vehicles to go long distances. It also offers an alternative that helps address the nation’s ongoing shortage of other critical minerals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in different battery compositions.
The announcement aligns with plans Ford announced last year to invest more than $50 billion to develop and build EVs, and ultimately produce 2 million annually by the end of 2026. Ford also announced that CATL would supply lithium iron phosphate battery packs for its Mustang Mach-Es and F-150 Lightning pickups in early 2024.
But questions around links between the nation’s major automakers and the use of forced labor in Xinjiang, China, are also emerging on Capitol Hill.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, passed in 2021 by wide margins in Congress, banned the import of any good made wholly or in part in Xinjiang, under the presumption that its production would involve forced labor.
International human rights researchers say the region is the center of forced labor systems that chiefly target Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority group.
Late last year, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) launched a probe of eight automakers — including Ford — after a British report concluded that virtually every major automaker could be using parts made with Xinjiang forced labor.
Led by a Sheffield Hallam University professor of human rights and contemporary slavery, the report also raised questions about CATL’s activities in Xinjiang.
Last year, CATL registered a new jointly owned lithium processing company in the region, it noted. CATL’s new company, Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., subsequently boasted that it would become one of the largest producers of lithium carbonate in the world.
Wyden in a letter to Ford asked if any of its supply chains and raw materials, mining, processing or parts manufacturing are tied to Xinjiang, how the company maps its supply chains, and whether it’s ever had any goods seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Ford had until Jan. 13 to respond.
When asked about the senator’s inquiry, Ford in a statement responded: “As we relayed to the Committee, Ford is committed to respecting human rights everywhere we operate and throughout our entire value chain. We will defer to the Committee regarding the release of Ford’s full response.”
Reporter David Iaconangelo contributed.
A version of this report first ran in E&E News’ Greenwire. Get access to more comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the energy transition, natural resources, climate change and more in E&E News.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday vowed to do “whatever it takes” to keep his country safe, amid mounting fears that suspected Chinese spy balloons could also target the UK, a day after the US military shot down a fourth flying object over the American airspace.
During a hospital visit in northern England, Sunak said the UK was in constant contact with its allies across the Atlantic and remained in readiness for any safety response.
Sunak’s response comes as his defence minister Ben Wallace confirmed the UK is launching a review into the security implications of the recent incursions into western airspace.
“I want people to know that we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe,” Sunak told reporters.
“We have something called the quick reaction alert force, which involves Typhoon planes kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace. I can’t obviously comment in detail on national security matters but we are in constant touch with our allies and as I said we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe,” he said.
On Sunday, the US military shot down its fourth flying object, indicating that they were still trying to determine the details and did not yet rule out any explanation for the objects.
“The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security. This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse,” said UK Defence Secretary Wallace.
Tensions were rising since a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina last week.
According to reports, US officials fear it was sent by Beijing to monitor sensitive sites but China has described it as a weather balloon.
In the UK, Transport Minister Richard Holden said it was “possible” that Chinese spy balloons had already been sent to this country.
“It is also possible, and I would think likely, that there would be people from the Chinese government trying to act as a hostile state. I think we have to be realistic about the threat these countries pose to the UK,” Holden told ‘Sky News’.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic row continues to escalate as the Chinese foreign ministry claimed on Monday that the US has flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times over the past year.
“It’s not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press briefing.
“Since last year alone, US balloons have illegally flown above China more than 10 times without any approval from Chinese authorities.
The first thing the US side should do is start with a clean slate, undergo some self-reflection, instead of smearing and accusing China,” he said.
Washington is yet to respond to the allegations from Beijing.
Chinese Woman ‘Purchases’ Uninhabited Okinawa Island, Triggers Stir
An uninhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan was reportedly bought by a Chinese woman, whose identity was not revealed. Japan Times reported on Saturday (February 11) that the woman’s claims were made on social media, which led to a stir online. According to the report, a few users highlighted that the move would be part of Beijing’s attempt at “an expansion of Chinese territory”.
The firm specialises in Chinese businesses, public records showed, the report added. Sharing details, the office of Izena village in Okinawa said that the company owns about 50 percent of the total land, the report said, adding that its beaches are mostly controlled by the local government.
The woman had earlier posted a video on social media showing her first visit to the island. Japan Times reported that an Izena Island resident had taken the woman and another woman on a trip to Yanaha Island by boat.
Tina Zhang (张), a 34-year-old 🇨🇳 woman from Qingdao, Shandong province, posted videos on Douyin of her hanging out on Yanaha Island (屋那霸岛) — the biggest uninhabited island in Okinawa — which she claimed she bought in 2020.
🇯🇵🏝”Yanaha/屋那覇島” Island,the largest uninhabited island in Okinawa,has been bought by a Chinese woman entrepreneur in her 30s. Under a law in Japan,no one can enter a place without the consent of the land owner. Despite being a hot topic on the SNS in China,no news in Japan. pic.twitter.com/CGDh0lnoqf
New Delhi: Chinese short video-making app TikTok has reportedly sacked its entire India staff — about 40 employees — and February 28 will be their last working day.
According to a report in The Economic Times, the ByteDance-owned platform, banned in India in June 2020 over national security concerns, told its employees they would receive up to nine months of severance package.
However, most of the staff will only get three-month severance.
In June 2020, the government banned TikTok along with 59 other Chinese apps citing security concerns.
Since then, the country has banned over 300 Chinese apps, including WeChat, Shareit, Helo, Likee, UC News, Bigo Live, UC Browser and many more.
The Centre last week blocked over 230 apps, including 138 betting and about 94 loan apps, which were traced to Chinese links.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was recently instructed by the MHA to ban such apps, which operate through a third party link.
All these apps were found violating Section 69 of the IT Act and contained materials which were deemed as a threat to India’s sovereignty and integrity.
Meanwhile, US Senator Michael Bennett has urged Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to immediately remove TikTok from their app stores, calling it an unacceptable risk to American national security.
The US plans to ban Chinese short video-making app TikTok nationwide, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a vote next month on a bill to completely block the platform.
“We are aware that there have been four previous balloons that have gone over U.S. territory. This is what we assess is part of a larger Chinese surveillance balloon program,” Ryder said. “You’ve heard us talk in the past about the fact that this is a program that’s been operated for several years.”
Last week, the military tracked a balloon that crossed the U.S. before it was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday. The military is still working to recover debris from the airship.
Outrage over Beijing’s encroachment last week was further fueled by revelations of several more Chinese balloons that crossed into U.S. territory but went undetected. Ryder said the military has since “learned a lot on how to track” the balloons.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who postponed a visit to Beijing over the balloon, echoed the assessment that China’s surveillance was widespread. He said the U.S. has “shared information with dozens of countries.”
“We’re not alone in this,” Blinken told reporters on Wednesday. “Countries across five continents have also had surveillance balloons [fly over] their territory, which is why we’re sharing this information with others.”
“We continue to look to China to act responsibly,” he said.
The global surveillance network was first reported by The Washington Post.
There’s bipartisan furor over China’s incursion, but Biden is also taking heat, mostly from Republicans, over waiting to shoot down the balloon.
Biden said he ordered the craft shot down last week, but military brass advised waiting until it was over water to minimize risks to people on the ground.
Meanwhile, officials from the intelligence community, Pentagon and State Department are set to brief members of the House and Senate separately on Thursday.
Administration briefers include Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl and Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, will also gavel in the first public hearing on the balloon on Thursday with Pentagon officials set to testify.
Tester, whose state of Montana was traversed by the balloon, chairs the Senate panel that controls the Pentagon budget.
Sherman and the Pentagon’s Asia policy chief, Ely Ratner, are also scheduled to testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S.-China policy on Thursday.
Daniella Diaz and Kelly Garrity contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The European Union will launch a new platform to counter disinformation campaigns by Russia and China amid growing worries, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said today.
A so-called Information Sharing and Analysis Center within the EU’s foreign services —the European External Action Service (EEAS) — will seek to track information manipulation by foreign actors and coordinate with the 27 EU countries and the wider community of NGOs.
“We need to understand how these disinformation campaigns are organized … to identify the actors of the manipulation,” said Borrell.
One EEAS official said it would be a decentralized platform to exchange information in real-time with NGOs, countries and cybersecurity agencies, enabling better understanding of emerging disinformation threats and narratives and quicker action to tackle such problems.
Almost a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU continues to fend off Russian attempts to manipulate and distort information about the war. Kremlin-led propaganda seeking to blame the EU for a global food crisis due to its sanctions has also spread to countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Borrell also warned of a “new wave” of disinformation of fabricated images, videos and websites posing as media outlets spreading “five times the speed of light across social networks and messaging services.”
The EU’s existing disinformation unit, the Stratcom division, in a first-ever report, noted that most of the foreign information manipulation in 2022 had centered on narratives supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Chinese diplomatic channels were particularly involved.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
MUNICH, Germany — As the world’s security elite gathers in Munich this week, they’ll be connecting their mobile phones to Chinese telecoms equipment surrounding the venue.
Heads of state, security chiefs, spooks and intelligence officials head to Germany on Friday for their blue-riband annual gathering, the Munich Security Conference. On the event’s VIP list are U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and hundreds more heads of state and government, ministers and foreign dignitaries.
The gathering takes place at the five-star Hotel Bayerischer Hof. From its ice-themed Polar Bar on the hotel’s rooftop, you can overlook the city’s skyline, spotting multiple telecommunications antennas poking between church steeples. Some of these antennas, within 300 meters of the hotel, are equipped with hardware supplied by controversial Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, POLITICO has learnt through visual confirmation, talks with several equipment experts and information from industry insiders with knowledge of the area’s networks.
One mast, on top of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof building itself, is also potentially equipped with Huawei gear, talks with two industry insiders suggested.
The question of whether to allow Chinese 5G suppliers into Western countries in past years became a bone of contention between Berlin on the one hand and Washington and like-minded partners on the other. This week’s gathering also comes as the U.S. continues to call out Germany’s economic reliance on Beijing, with a new report showing the German trade deficit with China exploded in 2022, and amid sky-high tensions between Washington and Beijing over surveillance balloons hovering over the U.S., Canada and elsewhere.
“The dependence on Huawei components in our 5G network continues to pose an incalculable security risk,” said Maximilian Funke-Kaiser, liberal member of the German Bundestag and digital policy speaker for the government party Free Democratic Party (FDP).
“The use of Huawei technology in the mobile network here runs counter to Germany’s security policy goals,” Funke-Kaiser said, calling the vendor’s involvement in German 4G and 5G “a mistake in view of the Chinese company’s closeness to the state.”
Huawei has consistently denied posing a security risk to European countries.
Delving into data
Despite extensive reporting, POLITICO was unable to gather on-the-record confirmation of which vendor’s telecoms equipment was used for which masts. Operators and vendors refused to disclose the information, citing contractual obligations, and local authorities said they didn’t have the information available.
The security risks associated with Huawei equipment also vary, and differ even among close allies in the West. Some capitals argue the real risk of Chinese telecoms equipment is the overreliance on a Chinese firm in an unstable geopolitical situation — much like Europe relied on Russian gas for its energy needs.
But others argue that the risk runs deeper and that China could use Huawei’s access to equipment and data in European mobile networks — especially in areas of critical importance and high sensitivity — to put the West’s security at risk. Huawei has been implicated in a number of high-profile espionage cases, including at the African Union Headquarters.
The Munich Security Conference takes place at the five-star Bayerischer Hof hotel | Ronald Wittek/EPA-EFE
When asked about Huawei’s presence in Munich, Mike Gallagher, a Republican and Chairman of the U.S. House select committee on China, said POLITICO’s findings were “troubling” and “should concern every individual attending the conference.”
The chair of the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, Mark Warner, a Democrat who’s attending the conference, said it was “a timely reminder that we must continue to work with like-minded allies to promote secure and competitively priced alternatives to Huawei equipment.”
U.S. Senate intelligence committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida) said U.S. diplomats “should be aware of the risks and take necessary precautions.”
Munich networking
From a 2007 speech by Russia’s Vladimir Putin to U.S. President Joe Biden’s virtual address at the start of his mandate in February 2021, the conference strives to set the global diplomatic and international relations agenda. Its organizers see it as an open space for debating geopolitics and world affairs, with attendees ranging from across the world and an advisory board where Chinese state officials sit alongside Western diplomats and titans of industry.
The conference’s guest list reveals something else too: The gathering is seen as critical by U.S. government officials. This year, the U.S. is sending its largest delegation yet, with Harris flanked by dozens of government officials, security chiefs and congresspeople, including Democrat leader Chuck Schumer, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and others.
For these U.S. attendees — and the Western partners that see eye to eye with the U.S. position on China’s telecoms giant Huawei — the networks around the premises prove troublesome.
An online map on the website of Germany’s telecoms agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, shows 13 locations for masts and antennas surrounding the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. The agency also provides information about which of the country’s three main operators — Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica — use which locations.
POLITICO shared photos of seven masts near the hotel with fourexperts specialized in telecoms radio access network (RAN) equipment. These experts established that at least twowere equipped with gear of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.
If a network operator has one mast equipped with Huawei in Munich, it likely equips all masts in the area with the same vendor, two industry insiders said. Operators usually use one provider for larger areas. This means at least one other location is also likely equipped with Huawei gear, the insiders said. Three other locations, including the mast on the roof of the conference venue, are used by an operator using Huawei equipment but those locations are part of infrastructure that is shared by several operators, meaning there’s a chance these are equipped with Huawei gear but it’s unconfirmed.
The findings are in line with recent reports on Germany’s telecoms infrastructure.
Europe’s largest economy is a stronghold for Huawei in the West. A report by boutique telecoms intelligence firm Strand Consult estimated that Germany relies on Chinese technology for 59 percent of its ongoing 5G network deployment. The country already had a massive reliance on Chinese equipment in its 4G network, where Strand estimated Huawei accounts for 57 percent.
In February 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden delivered remarks at the virtual event hosted by the Munich Security Conference — Biden stressed the United States’ commitment to NATO after four years of the Trump administration undermining the alliance | Pooled photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“If you look at the percentage of Chinese equipment in Germany, you could say it is the most unsafe country in Europe,” said John Strand, founder of Strand Consult. “Welcome to the Munich Security Conference: We can’t guarantee your security,” he quipped.
Black hole of telecoms intelligence
Establishing with certainty just how many of the 13 masts are equipped with Chinese telecoms gear is extremely difficult. Both German operators and their vendors have a policy to not communicate what equipment they’re using in which locations, citing contractual obligations on confidentiality.
Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone confirmed that they use Huawei in their German antenna networks. Telefónica said they use “a mix of European and international network suppliers” in Germany. Yet, all declined to comment on whether they use Huawei in Munich.
Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei all declined to comment on whether they were providing gear in the greater Munich area, referring questions to the local operators.
Government regulators, too, divulge no details of which suppliers provide gear for certain locations. The Federal Network Agency and the Federal Office for Information Security admitted they don’t know which equipment is fitted to which mast; both referred to the interior ministry for answers. The interior ministry said it “does not usually know which critical components are installed on which radio mast in detail.”
The Hotel Bayerischer Hof forwarded questions about mobile infrastructure on its roof to the security conference’s organizers.
The Munich Security Conference itself said in a statement: “As a matter of principle, we do not comment on the exact details of the infrastructure used for the main conference in Munich. We are in close contact with all relevant authorities in order to secure the conference venue, the participants and the digital space accordingly.”
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) does provide its own security networks for official events, but the Munich Security Conference is “outside the responsibility of the BSI,” the BSI said in an email.
Germany’s telecoms ambiguity
Through its 5G equipment it is feasible for Huawei to spy on users of a network or to disrupt communications as the very design of 5G makes it harder to monitor security, the head of the U.K.’s intelligence service MI6, Alex Younger, said to an audience in his second public speech.
But John Lee, director of the consultancy East-West Futures and an expert on Chinese digital policy, said it’s “not a clear cut technical case” as to whether Huawei equipment in current telecoms networks represents a material security risk.
“Some non-Western countries are proceeding to upgrade their telecoms infrastructure with Huawei as a key partner,” Lee said. “This is still mainly a political issue of how much suspicion is placed on the ambitions of the Chinese state and its relationship with Chinese companies.”
In an effort to coordinate a common approach to vendors, the EU developed “5G security toolbox” guidelines in 2019 and 2020 to mitigate security risks in networks. Some major European countries, including France, have imposed hard restrictions for their operators, including by limiting the use of “high-risk vendors” — a term widely understood across Europe to be Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE — in certain strategic geographic areas.
In Germany, however, policymakers took years to agree on their framework for 5G security. In April 2021 — more than a year after the EU’s joint plan came out — it passed measures that allowed the government to intervene on operators’ contracts with Chinese vendors.
But those interventions haven’t barred the use of Huawei in certain geographical areas yet.
And the interior ministry — which has veto power to ban or recall certain components if they see them as an “impairment of public order or safety” — hasn’t intervened much either, a ministry spokesperson said via email.
Up till now, the spokesperson said, specific orders to cut Huawei from German networks “have not been issued.”
Alex Ward, Maggie Miller and Tristan Fiedler contributed reporting.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
The balloon traversed U.S. and Canadian airspace last week before it was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday, just days before Biden addressed Congress.
China has claimed it was a weather balloon that went off course and has lashed out at the U.S. over shooting it down. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing over the incident.
The flap triggered bipartisan uproar at China on Capitol Hill — where confronting Beijing has garnered support from both parties — and calls for more information over the balloon and the administration’s handling of it.
Biden said last week he ordered the military to shoot down the balloon before Saturday, but top brass recommended waiting until it was over water so it would minimize risk to people on the ground. The military is now working to retrieve the debris.
Administration officials are set to brief lawmakers on the balloon this week, and a Senate panel is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on it.
Biden added Tuesday night that his administration has put the U.S. in “the strongest position in decades to compete” with Beijing. The U.S., he said, would cooperate where possible.
He added that he makes “no apologies that we are investing to make America strong” and competing with China. He touted efforts to modernize the military “to safeguard stability and deter aggression.”
Biden also highlighted the administration’s efforts to aid Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion, a message that comes as some Republican factions question the need to continue to aid Kyiv.
As the war nears its one-year mark, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion was “a test for the ages” for the U.S. and its allies in Europe.
“One year later, we know the answer,” he said.
Biden called out Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, who sat in the House gallery for the speech.
“We are united in our support for your country,” Biden pledged. “We’re going to stand with you as long as it takes.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
