Tuesday, May 5, 2020

I People’s Liberation Army (PLA), China’s new H-20 stealth bomber will likely make its first public appearance at the Zhuhai Air Show in November, assuming the event isn’t cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.


The world could get its first peek at China’s most advanced aircraft ever at the Zhuhai Air Show, a November venue where Beijing shows off its military might.
The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based publication, reported on Monday that the H-20 stealth bomber is expected to be completed this year and might be shown off as soon as November 2020. However, a number of factors could influence that decision, including the ongoing pandemic as well as the state of regional political relations.
“The Beijing leadership is still carefully considering whether its commission will affect regional balance, especially as regional tensions have been escalating over the COVID-19 pandemic,” an unnamed military source told the Post. “Like intercontinental ballistic missiles, all strategic bombers can be used for delivering nuclear weapons … if China claimed it had pursued a national defense policy which is purely defensive in nature, why would it need such an offensive weapon?”
The bomber is purported to have a maximum takeoff weight of at least 200 tons (400,000 pounds), a payload of up to 45 tons (90,000 pounds), a range of 5,000 miles (8,050 kilometers) and utilizes a “flying wing” design similar to that used by the United States’ B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider stealth bombers , the latter of which could also make a 2020 debut.

The PLA has often used the Zhuhai Air Show to show off its new technology. The J-20 “Weilong” stealth fighter was also seen for the first time at the 2011 air show, and the FC-31 experimental stealth aircraft debuted at the 2014 air show, which may or may not become the PLA Navy’s new carrier-based fighter .
The H-20 will round out the PLA’s sweeping new series of modern aircraft intended to replace the aging Cold War-era air fleet, some of which still uses Soviet designs built under license or reverse-engineered. Alongside the H-20 stealth bomber are the Y-20 transport aircraft, the Z-20 helicopter and the J-20 stealth fighter - together dubbed the “20 series” by observers.
According to a report by a news paper in Russia in early 2019 that Beijing was developing two stealth bombers : one, the Hong-20 or H-20, was confirmed by the PLA, but a second aircraft, dubbed the J/H-XX by observers, remains largely in the world of speculation.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a British military think tank, wrote in its annual report “The Military Balance” in February 2020 that the J/H-XX is likely a fighter-bomber somewhat analogous to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. It is purported to be supersonic, with a combat radius of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers).
Some unofficial art depicting the aircraft appeared on the cover of the May 2018 edition of Aerospace Knowledge, a Chinese publication, and the IISS description of the jet similarly assumes it to have a sleek silhouette with four tail surfaces similar to the failed Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Black Widow.

One unnamed military source told SCMP on Monday the H-20 could make use of the Russian-made NK-321, built by Kuznetsov Design Bureau for Moscow’s Tu-160 “White Swan” supersonic bomber. However, another said the bomber could get an upgraded Shenyang WS-10 engine, used by several fighters built by the Chinese design firm.
“The WS-10 is still a transitional engine for the H-20 because it is not powerful enough. The eligible replacement may take two to three years for development,” one of the sources said. “That’s why the American air force doesn’t care about the H-20, because it is not strong and powerful enough to cause any challenge to their B-2 and B-21 bombers.”
Of course, neither the B-2 nor B-21 is supersonic, either. But, like both aircraft, the H-20 will carry nuclear weapons, which could help give Beijing a true nuclear triad. If so, China would join the ranks of Russia, India and the US as the only nations able to deliver a nuclear strike by submarine-launched ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-deployed nuclear weapons.
China has also been developing an air-launched ballistic missile to be fired from a specially modified H-6 bomber, which would also gi

The Boeing aircraft manufacturer has presented the first three prototypes of an unmanned attack drone that is powered by artificial intelligence for the Royal Australian Air Force

The Boeing aircraft manufacturer has presented the first three prototypes of an unmanned attack drone that is powered by artificial intelligence for the Royal Australian Air Force, the company’s Australian branch announced in a press release on Tuesday.
According to Boeing, the drone, dubbed Loyal Wingman, is the first aircraft to be designed, engineered, and produced in Australia for more than half a century with mass production starting by the middle of the decade.
“This is a truly historic moment for our country and for Australian defence innovation,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in the press release.
According to Boeing, the Loyal Wingman drones will now be subject to rigorous ground and flight testing. Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld praised the cooperation between the armed forces and the aircraft manufacturer.
picture © REUTERS

Boeing's unmanned Loyal Wingman aircraft is seen in this handout picture obtained on May 5, 2020 in an undisclosed location in Australia
“This demonstrates the importance of the relationship Air Force has with Boeing Australia and defence industry more broadly. I look forward to exploring the capabilities this aircraft may bring to our existing fleet in the future,” Air Marshal Hupfeld said in the press release.
In February 2019, the Australian government announced an investment of $25.8 million in the project to produce the unmanned combat drone.
The Loyal Wingman unmanned aircraft can reportedly conduct intelligence missions on its own or provide support to manned aircraft.

Two of China's major telecoms have successfully built several 5G masts Mount Everest to show how telecoms can operate under extreme conditions.

Two of China's major telecoms have successfully built several 5G masts Mount Everest to show how telecoms can operate under extreme conditions, it was reported.
Huawei and China Mobile built the world's highest 5G network, commemorating the anniversary of two major Chinese milestones in mountaineering.
Five 5G AAU base stations were built on the mountain at its Base, Transition and Forward Camps at 5,300, 5,800 and 6,500 metres above sea level, respectively.
The base stations aim to demonstrate the efficacy of Huawei's compact and integrated access points, with the Chinese tech firm announcing its base stations can offer 20 times the networking capacity while being three times smaller than a traditional ones.
— Zain MalikπŸ‡΅πŸ‡° (@izainmanzoor) May 4, 2020
The stations will offer download speeds of over 1.7Gbps (1,700 megabytes) and upload speeds of 215Mbps, even at 6,500 metres above sea level, and will be used to measure Mount Everest along with several specialists stationed on the mountain.
Compact base stations reduce the time and work needed for installations, with smaller footprints boosting the number of sites in an area. The technologies enhance speeds via its massive multi input, multi output (MIMO) technology, increasing speed and capacity by monitoring users per base station and using beamforming, which transmits data directly to each device.
According to a press release , such advancements allow cheaper, faster installations for building networks across numerous regions, including urban and harsh environments.
The news comes 60 years after mountaineers first climbed the world's tallest mountain at its north ridge and 45 years after the first official and accurate measurement of the summit.
The announcement comes nearly a decade after Huawei installed the world's highest GSM network at 5200m above sea level.
— Huawei (@Huawei) August 26, 2010
The company said in a statement: "Huawei strongly believes that technology means to make the world better. The beauty of Mount Everest can be displayed via 5G high-definition video and VR experience, which also provides further insights for mountaineers, scientists and other specialists into the nature. The ground-breaking establishment on Mount Everest once again proves that 5G technology connect Mankind and the Earth harmoniously".
The news comes amid the US trade war on China, where Washington placed Huawei, ZTE and over 70 Chinese tech firms on an Entity List in May last year, citing national security concerns and allegations that such companies could be used to spy for the Chinese government. Both Huawei and Beijing have sharply and repeatedly denied the accusations and have demanded US officials to provide evidence to support its claim, 

The 5 eyes intelligence dismisses allegations and speculations that Covid19 originated due to an accident in a Chinese laboratory

Information shared among the Five Eyes, the intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, dismisses as "highly unlikely" speculations that the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak originated due to an accident in a Chinese laboratory, writes CNN.
Instead, judging by an assessment put together by the intelligence-sharing coalition, the source of the current pandemic can potentially be traced to a Chinese market, claim two Western diplomatic officials cited by the outlet.
"We think it's highly unlikely it was an accident… It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction."
Member-states of “Five Eyes” are suggested as being increasingly unanimous in converging around this assessment, claimed the cited sources.

A third source was cited as acknowledging that the level of certainty voiced by Trump and Pompeo was "way out in front of" the current Five Eyes assessment, alleging there was yet nothing to disclaim that the virus originated from a laboratory.
Adding that there was no proof yet to substantiate this as a legitimate theory, the source said "clearly the market is where it exploded from". However, that leaves open the question of just how the virus reached the market.
More cooperation and transparency from the Chinese side could bring about greater certainty regarding the issue, underscored the source.
The possibility was also acknowledged that the US was not sharing all of its intelligence.
There has not yet been an official assessment of the information by the US.
The US intelligence community issued a statement on 30 April saying it is still working to "determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan".
CNN has cited a senior Office of the Director of National Intelligence official claiming on Monday that there was evidence supporting both theories regarding the virus.
"We regularly share intelligence with our partners on a variety of threats and COVID is no different… The IC stands by the statement that the ODNI released last Thursday and we underscore three points: the IC believes the virus started in China. We're down to two theories and have evidence on both. We agree that it does not appear to have been purposeful."
US-China War of Words
The report appears to contradict earlier emphatic claims by US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who have been doubling down on the assertion that the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic initially started last December, and accusing the country of a deliberate cover-up in the critical early stages.
The rhetoric from Washington at this point has not been substantiated by any proof.
In a Sunday interview with ABC, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of "enormous evidence" that the outbreak of the respiratory disease originated in a Wuhan laboratory, stopping short of actually offering any details.
Statements by the former CIA director followed US President Donald Trump's claims on 30 April that he had seen evidence giving him a "high degree of confidence" the virus originated in a Chinese lab.
“It got out. China should’ve stopped it.”
“[China] didn’t want to have us see it. Maybe they were worried about competence, maybe they were worried about something else.”
Beijing has been forcefully dismissing all accusations, with the state-owned Global Times newspaper saying in an editorial on Monday that Pompeo had "stunned the world with groundless accusations."
"Since Pompeo said his claims are supported by 'enormous evidence', then he should present this so-called evidence to the world, and especially to the American public who he continually tries to fool,” says the editorial.
China has accused the US of “telling lies” about the pandemic to deflect attention from criticism at home over the Trump administration’s efforts to deal with the outbreak.
"They have only one objective: to try to shirk responsibility for their own epidemic and prevention and control measures and divert public attention," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on 28 April.
Debate Around Virus Origins
As the world struggles with the pandemic, scientists both in China and the West have cited research indicating the virus is likely to have originated in bats and jumped to humans from an intermediate host, similarly to how the SARS epidemic started in 2002 and 2003.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence in its Thursday meeting had emphasised that the "Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified."

The World Health Organisation has not received any data from the US proving that the COVID-19 virus was not of natural origin, Michael Ryan, the organisation's executive director of Health Emergencies Programme, said. The WHO also called for a 'scientific-based' rather than a political probe into the origin of the coronavirus.
To date, the US has recorded more than 1.1 million cases of the coronavirus, with over 68,000 deaths related to COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

When Paul Kagame secretly met marshal Mobutu Seseko at N'sele in 1991

Paul Kagame at N ' sele, March 1991.
It was on the sidelines of the signing of the "N ' saddle agreement", signed as part of the indirect negotiations between the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), under the mediation of President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.
It is 4 months earlier (on 22 November 1990) in Goma, that Zaire calls for the first time at the negotiating table the delegates of the two belligerents to the Rwandan conflict. A month earlier (October 1st), while Ugandan presidents Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana are in New York, some hundred elements of the RPF had launched their first historic offensive on the Rwandan territory, attacking the post of Kagitumba, before reaching Gabiro (90 kms from Kigali).
After this first round of the November 1990 negotiations in Goma, Zaire once again called the two belligerents in Brussels (Belgium) in December 1990. The delegation of the Rwandan government was composed of Shamukiga Charles (Luxembourg's Consul in Rwanda) , AndrΓ© Katabarwa (Ambassador of Rwanda to Rome), Father Mahame (Superior of the Jesuits in Rwanda) and Pastor Musabe (Deputy Director of the African Continental Bank-Rwanda). The delegation delegation was composed of Jacques Bihozagara, Patrick Mazimpaka, Pastor Bizimungu and Jean Barahinyura.
A 3th round of negotiations was held in Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania) in February 1991, before the signing of an agreement on 29 March 1991 in N ' saddle (suburb de Kinshasa, capital of the rd Congo).
The N ' saddle agreement introduced a ceasefire between the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front. On the side of the Government of Rwanda, it was signed by Dr. Casimir Bizimungu (then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda) and on the side of the RPF, by Pastor Bizimungu (then to Information Commissioner) and General Major Paul Kagame (then Military Chief of the Rwandan Patriotic Front).
Unfortunately, the N ' saddle agreement was broken the following day by the RPF's resumption of hostilities. The two belligerents were again invited to the negotiating table and the Agreement was amended in Gbadolite (Zaire) on 16 September 1991 and in Arusha (Tanzania) on 12 July 1992.
The N ' saddle agreement was one of the few official documents Paul Kagame signed his signature. In the next, he will pull the strings, prefer to delegate Pastor Bizimungu or Alexis Kanyarengwe.

The zambian army still occupies some DRCs villages

The Zambian army still occupied the villages Moliro, Kibanga and Kalubamba
05.05.2020,
The Zambian military forces have occupied the border villages of Muliro, Kibanga and Kalubamba in Tanganyika Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 20 March. These Zambian military incursions into the city of Moliro, where they operate, and conduct land and aerial patrols with helicopter in several areas.
These areas claimed by Zambia were at the base of diplomatic meetings between Congolese and Zambian authorities in Lusaka, capital of Zambia, but no result has been achieved for these Zambian armed forces to leave Congolese soil." Everyone is stand bye. The reality is that the Zambian military are still on the side of Kibanga over there. This even justifies the presence of several military members in the of Territory, which has become an operational zone for them. The inhabitants of there look in earthenware dogs there " regrets provincial deputy Alexis Katempa.
Since the start of the clash in the game, some civil society organizations have been violating serious violations of international humanitarian law following the destruction of schools, and hospitals by Zambian reds. This has caused massive movements from local people to other areas.
According to an on-site source, " Kinshasa's silence on this foray remains a tree that hides the forest. Congolese citizens are not so informed about this foray that is taking such a great magnitude. The country is leaving. The DRC faces two wars, one against the Covid-19, and the other against Zambia. But only the evolution of a war is informed to the Congolese, the one against the Covid-19 ".
" No police and Congolese armed forces in the lands conquered by the Zambian military forces. This means that the country is already cut off without the other Congolese knowing. Zambian military patrolling in several quarters here in Moliro " worries a citizen of Moliro.
It should be noted that the Zambian forces on 20 March made an foray into the villages of Muliro, Kibanga, and Kalubamba by pushing the Congolese army away. Until this moment the Zambian flag floats on Congolese soil.

Monday, May 4, 2020

The LUCHA Nyamilima has just turned into an armed group and carries out operations with the Mai-Mai AFRC" (Army)


"The LUCHA Nyamilima has just turned into an armed group and carries out operations with the Mai-Mai AFRC" (Army)
04/05/2020

According to our sources,the Congolese army accuses the citizen movement Fight for Change (LUCHA), section of Nyamilima in the territory of Rutshuru (North Kivu) of participating in unintentional actions to destabilize the region.
In a statement made public this Monday, May 2020, 4, the command of operations Good 2 North Kivu says that since mid-January, the pro-democracy movement has been taking action with Mai-Mai AFRC tailings, actions that have cost the lives of Congolese soldiers.
" It is with regret that the operating sector Good 2 has just noticed that the movement has just become an armed group and is now carrying out operations together with the residues armed group. From 20 January until 2 May 2020, the Nyamilima, in complicity with the AFRC, organized actions against FARDC. During these attacks, FARDC lost 2 AK47 weapons and 2 military ", it is read in this document with the signing of brigade General Yamba Kabangu Willy, Commander a. i of the operating sector Good 2 North Kivu.
The Armed Forces say they take witness to the Congolese community and ask the militants of the LUCHA Nyamilima to "return to common sense to avoid taking all the consequences".
...... wait for more information about this issue as our team is keenly putting the eye on it.....