How Should I Bike to Slim My Legs?
Cycling is an aerobic, calorie-burning, leg-slimming exercise when you cycle at the right intensity with the correct resistance. You cannot vary the movement of cycling. You push the pedal down to turn the wheel and move forward if you're outdoor cycling, or spin the flywheel if you're cycling indoors. Whether you ride a road bike or a stationary bike, you can change the leg-improving benefits by adjusting your pace or the resistance.
Cycling burns approximately 450 calories an hour, according to Anita Bean, the author of "Slim Secrets." The calorie-burning benefits of cycling help to slim your legs, even though you burn calories from all over your body. To ensure you are using your leg muscles for endurance-building -- which trims the fat -- cycle at a pace between 80 and 110 revolutions per minute. This is a fairly fast pace. The RPM represent how many times the wheel spins within one minute.
The fast cycling pace is performed on a low-resistance level. If using an indoor bike, adjust the tension knob to a light level that allows you to comfortably maintain the 80 to 110 RPM pace. If you are cycling faster than that, increase the resistance slightly. An outdoor bicycling workout is performed in a low gear on a flat road to slim your legs. The difference with a hill workout is that your body contracts the legs more frequently which leads to muscle toning.
The combination of cycling speed and resistance sets your workout intensity level. You monitor your intensity with your heart rate. Spinning.com, the creators of the indoor cycling workouts, suggest exercise at a heart rate that is approximately 65 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. Calculate this by subtracting your age from 220 and multiplying the result by 65 and 80 percent. As you exercise, keep your pulse within this range to burn fat and slim your legs.
Your cycling workout should be a minimum of 30 minutes. If you are unable to cycle for 30 minutes continuously, split up your workouts into 10-minute rides. Gradually increase your daily amount of time, but do not exceed 60 minutes.
As you push down on the pedals, the fronts of your legs, your quadriceps tighten. To maximize the cycling benefits for your legs, wear cycling shoes with clips and attach yourself to the pedals. Using the clips, you are able to pull up on the pedals so your hamstrings help with the cycling. Your cycling form also makes a difference in your leg-slimming benefits. Position your thighs parallel to each other with your knees facing forward. Keep your feet flat, or your toes slightly up to reduce the amount of contraction in your calves and keep the workout focused on your thighs. Look at your shins to ensure they remain vertical at the top of the pedaling stroke. Adjust your seat if your shin angles forward or backward.


It Happens When You Least Expect It ….
I am happy to say that although my business looks nothing like I thought it would one year ago, it is a business that I am very proud of today. When I looked at my goals and reviewed what I really wanted (instead of what others expected) I was able to create a new picture for my business and the greatest thing is that picture is actually coming to fruition!!
In the last week I have signed 2 new clients I absolutely love and I have gained 2 new coaching clients. I realized that I absolutely love coaching and this is a focus that I want to work with in the next little while and an area of my business to grow. I think the key to that success has been letting go of what I perceived that everyone else expected from me and getting back to what I wanted in a business!! I lost the attitude that I had to be someone that others wanted me to be and realized I could just be me again!!
I look forward to each and every day and can't wait to get into my office again … it is a new found love for both my business and my clients.
So the reason for this post is to allow you, my readers, to realize that you and only you can determine what your business goals are and what your vision for your business is!! As entrepreneurs we need to stop looking at everyone else and doing what others are doing or what we think others expect from us. I believe that once you create your own dream and vision you will be excited with the results!!
Four Little Letters Never Looked So Good!!!!
Well today some of my stress was released in the form of a little red sign that says "SOLD". It is amazing the ways that we hold our stresses and I realized that this stress was effecting a number of areas in my life. I was exhausted, unable to concentrate and taking it out on those around me. One of my clients pointed out to me that I wasn't my usual cheerful self.
What if I had followed up better with potential clients ….
What if I had spent some more time on social networking ….
What if I had gone to that networking event that I passed on ….
I will work on better follow up and follow up with each new lead within 48 hours!
I will try to post at least 3 times on my blog and visit the forums at least weekly!
I will attend at least one extra networking event monthly outside the events I am already attending!
As business owners it is important that we know our faults and recognize when we make mistakes, but even more importantly we must take those mistakes and make them into lessons. Once we realize how not to make the same mistakes again, we will be on the road to creating a thriving business!!
We all have a great deal to be thankful about, so what are you most thankful for? I would be happy to post your thankful thursday message with a link back to your web site. Just send your message to yvonne@ableva.com and I will be sure to post it here.
In the interim, today I am thankful for all the job and career experiences (both good and bad) that have led me to where I am today. I believe that everything happens for a reason and I believe that I was meant to start my own business. I was able to do that because of all the things I learned in the "corporate" world and through each and every one of the jobs that I held. Each job was filled with practical and personal growth experiences that have made me who I am today.
Some of my prior experiences have taught me to be strong and I am not going to say I haven't learned really good lessons along the way through trial and error … I believe it is these experiences that allow me to have such a strong foundation to my business and will allow me to continue to have a successful and thriving business.
Sometimes I feel like I am simply writing to no one, which is okay too, but I know that there are several out there that are reading what I am writing and are even subscribing to my blog!! So thank you, thank you, thank you … it is for you that I try diligently to write each and every day.
I didn't think I would enjoy blogging as much as I have, but somehow I got the bug!!! I am excited to have a place to put my thoughts, feelings and opinions and more importantly to have someone that cares to "hear" what I am saying.
Today at my BNI (Business Networkers International) meeting I was honored by being presented with a notable networker award. I was very touched by this presentation and I must say it was a huge reminder as to what it means to be a notable networker.
Within my group I am definitely not the biggest referrer, but each and every referral that I give is well thought out and I work hard to get those referrals. I have made it a commitment to meet with each of the members of my group and learn as much as I can about their businesses. I know exactly who their ideal client is and I work hard to find them. When I do find them I just love how putting them in touch with someone that can help them makes me feel. It truly aspires to the BNI motto … "Givers Gain".
I have learned a great deal about networking and referral marketing through my BNI membership and for this I am truly thankful because I think so many of us network in order to get business and stand around waiting for the referrals rather than working to become a good networker.
I don't know where I would be in business without a supportive family. I truly am thankful to my parents for every lesson they taught me in life … the most important one to never, ever give up. My mother used to say I was so stubborn and would try and try even when faced with an impossible situation to make something happen.
It is that stubbornness that has gotten me through some rough times personally and professionally. I am the type of person that you don't ever say something can't be done, because I will prove to you it can!! The people closest to me know better than to think I can't do something because once I set my mind to something I will make it happen.
Well it's hard to believe, but as of today I have officially been in business for myself for 2 years!!!!! I can't believe how much I have accomplished in the past two years and it just goes to show that all those things that I am a huge advocate of do work … goal setting, time management, scheduling, believing in yourself and accountability partners (to name a few).
My REV family, my CVAN family and my VANA family.
My wonderful, wonderful coaches including Becki and Dale Noles, Heather Jacobson and Chris Papastamos – you all helped me at different times to learn to believe in myself and realize I could meet my dreams.
My family and friends (especially my virtual friends).
My VA team – all those subcontractors that have helped me with a project in the past.
My Small Business Advisor, Gord.
Today I am thankful that my colleagues have nominated me for the Janet Jordan Achievement Award. I was notified on Sunday by the IVAD (International Virtual Assistant Day) Committee and was so honored to have been nominated. This international award is given in recognition of a Virtual Assistant that has achieved tremendous success in the Virtual Assistant industry during the first five years of business.
I would also like to say congratulations to all the other nominees as I am aware that the committee will have a tough decision ahead of them. If you would like more information about the Janet Jordan award or about the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention please visit their site.
Well … I am back from a much needed vacation, only problem is that as a small business owner when no one is "watching" out for you the workload that one returns to is quite large!! However, I think I am finally seeing the other side of things.
Today at my BNI meeting, the Business Coach that is a member talked about the importance of having a target market and a niche and I couldn't agree more. During my vacation I took the time to really review my business, my goals and my plans. I realized that it was time to make a few changes which I am going to implement.
Although vacations are meant as a period of rest, they can be used as something quite different too … a period of reflection. Keep in mind that a vacation or period of rest can be whatever you make it even if it is just a day off, a weekend off or a few hours to recharge your batteries and reflect.
So next time you are feeling close to "burnout" take some time to yourself and reflect … you will be amazed at the results!!


Painter, printmaker and critic, Fernando Leal (1896 – 1964) made a lasting contribution to Mexican art. A native of San Luis Potosí, he studied at the Escuela al Aire Libre, Coyoacan and mastered many media including engraving, lithography and various painting techniques. He is best known for his realistic mural paintings, executed in fresco and encaustic, which are rich in color and free of symbolism. During his impressive career, he was an esteemed art critic and minister of culture as well as one of the first Mexican artists to depict indigenous subjects.


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Isdaan laguna food price Bernhard Henrik Crusell (17751838) SwedishFinnish clarinetist, composer and translator. By Tel Asiado T he most significant and internationally best.


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Divnogorye () is a rural locality (a khutor) in Selyavinskoye Rural Settlement, Liskinsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia. The population was 251 as of 2010. There are 6 streets.

Geography
Divnogorye is located 44 km west of Liski (the district's administrative centre) by road. Peski-Kharkovskiye is the nearest rural locality.

References

Rural localities in Liskinsky District

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Can you believe it? I got invited into Michael jackson's Thriller Villa! Make my day, week and first month of the year.
Michael moved here in 2006, when he returned to the United States, after travelling for almost three years. He was the last resident of the villa. Today Liberace's valuables are stored here. That was impressive to see, but you won't believe what I saw when I entered.
Liberace and Michael were friends for years and it was such an incredible experience to feel the presence of them both in the villa.
The Liberace Foundation manages the assets with which it was endowed by Liberace himself to generate funding for performing and creative arts scholarship. Since 1981, they have distributed nearly $6 million in scholarships for the Creative and Performing arts, nationwide.
Liberace considered the Foundation one of his greatest achievements. In his book, The Things I Love, Liberace stated, "A lot of good things have happened to me in show business and I want to do what I can to give others just starting out a career boost. I hope the Foundation projects will continue into the future to offer gifted newcomers financial help, and in many cases, artistic exposure as well." That is nice of him, creative arts and performance arts can all the support they can. If you want more information, you can check the website https://liberace.org I recommend it. It was a wonderful day and I could not get enough of it.


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Home/Lifestyle/Australians Again Hold Protest Against COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Australians Again Hold Protest Against COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Demonstrators again marched in Australia's second-largest city on Wednesday. They are protesting against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination regulations in the construction industry.
Police said 44 people were arrested among hundreds of protesters on Tuesday.
The protests that have been going on for the past two days are aimed at the Victorian state government's mandate to require construction workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Australian PM Scott Morrison told reporters in Washington DC that the activity in Melbourne was "deeply concerning."
Morrison said, "I can understand that people will be concerned about the shutdown of the construction industry. This is an important job and they will return to work. We'll get through this. But the protest activity and what we saw there was, in my opinion, very sad, and that's not the right response in an effort to deal with an outbreak like this."
The march came two days after riot police were brought in to disperse around 500 demonstrators who broke down the doors of the offices of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Workers Union, which represents construction workers.
Riot police prepare to disperse protesters against COVID-19-related mandates for the construction industry in Melbourne, Australia, September 22, 2021.
On Monday evening, Victoria announced that the construction industry would be closed from Tuesday (21/9) for two weeks in metropolitan Melbourne and some regional areas.
Officials say all workplaces need to demonstrate compliance with health guidelines before they reopen. This includes staff getting at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before they return to work on October 5. [uh/lt]
Tags Australians COVID19 Hold Mandate Protest vaccine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Transport, Sustainability, Engagement
Awards Spotlight: Northern Rail
Kyle MacNeill, environment business partner and David Gray, head of energy and environment at Northern Rail tell us about winning the award for Best Workplace Development
How many of your staff took environmental training, and over what time period?
The training programme took place over two years and involved the delivery of training to more than 5,000 staff members. This included everyone from the managing director to the frontline colleagues who deal with customers and work to maintain our trains.
Did you have any challenges particular to training staff running a railway?
A lot! Facilitating the delivery of an extensive training programme to a wide number of roles throughout the north of England was a challenge in itself, but fitting this in while maintaining our daily operational train performance proved to be the most challenging aspect. We had to roll out training while having minimal negative impact on our operation and no negative impact on our customers.
"Individuals have the knowledge, skills, tools and sense of empowerment to make sustainability improvements"
How was the training linked to the IEMA skills matrix and was this useful?
We were early adopters of the All Jobs Greener programme, which makes colleagues more aware of the role they play in sustainability, and consisted of a three-stage approach: leading with environmental sustainability, aimed at our director team and senior leaders; managing with environmental sustainability, aimed at our management team; and working with environmental sustainability, aimed at the rest of our workforce.
All directors and executive managers were to be trained in six months. IEMA has since changed the All Jobs Greener approach to Sustainability Skills, which we have also used. These amendments have improved our delivery further as exams are undertaken electronically, removing burdens on the trainers.
Have you seen improvement in environment and sustainability outcomes?
Yes. There's certainly been more engagement from the business. In order to embed the learning and see improvement, it has been necessary to follow up at a local level with management and frontline staff. Improvements include an increase
in recycled waste through the new standardised approach to waste across the business. In addition, there has been greater identification and repairing of water leaks at numerous locations.
What benefits has the company and staff themselves gained through the training, going forward?
Individuals have the knowledge, skills, tools and sense of empowerment to make sustainability improvements in their day-to-day work. For the business, it is a very powerful statement to make that we have trained every member of staff on environmental sustainability, at a time when pressure is growing to reduce our impact on global carbon emissions and improve air quality. We can now say that every single person in our business can play a part in reducing these impacts.
How did it feel to win, and what did you think of the awards ceremony?
A feeling of gratitude that we were being recognised for the hard work we put in and the positive difference we had started to make to the business. Being the first winner announced made the rest of the event even more enjoyable. The venue was excellent, with the presenters both engaging and doing what they needed to do in a timely manner.
Over a period of 24 months, ARN delivered at least one level of the training to all staff
400 managers have gone through a certificated two-day IEMA course
More than 5,000 frontline staff have been trained.


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Q: Keyhole Integration Complex Analysis For the following equation
$$
I = \int_{0}^{\infty }\frac{\log(x)}{1+x^{3}}dx
$$
using
$$
f(z) = \frac{\log(z)}{1+z^{3}}
$$

*

*Draw the contour and any poles (Hint: It is a keyhole contour, draw and label it)

*Prove that the residue is $= \frac{-4\sqrt{3}}{9}*\pi ^{2}i $ (Hint: Calculate the residue $\operatorname{Res}(f(z)$)

*Show that it is a function of a real space (Principal Value) from $0 > \infty  \oint \frac{1}{1+x^{3}}$   the answer is $= \frac{2\sqrt{3}}{9} $ (Hint: Just show that the Principal Value of the orginal function is equal to$ \frac{2\sqrt{3}}{9})$
Context: My professor did this in a lecture a while ago and he didn't really take it up. I went to his office hours and he didn't explain it properly. I don't understand how to deal with the $\log(x)/(1 + x^3)$ as usually it isn't that complex. He gave us the answers which I put as the hints. Additionally, this is a keyhole contour problem. He said assume regular bounds as well.

A: $\newcommand{\bbx}[1]{\,\bbox[15px,border:1px groove navy]{\displaystyle{#1}}\,}
 \newcommand{\braces}[1]{\left\lbrace\,{#1}\,\right\rbrace}
 \newcommand{\bracks}[1]{\left\lbrack\,{#1}\,\right\rbrack}
 \newcommand{\dd}{\mathrm{d}}
 \newcommand{\ds}[1]{\displaystyle{#1}}
 \newcommand{\expo}[1]{\,\mathrm{e}^{#1}\,}
 \newcommand{\ic}{\mathrm{i}}
 \newcommand{\mc}[1]{\mathcal{#1}}
 \newcommand{\mrm}[1]{\mathrm{#1}}
 \newcommand{\pars}[1]{\left(\,{#1}\,\right)}
 \newcommand{\partiald}[3][]{\frac{\partial^{#1} #2}{\partial #3^{#1}}}
 \newcommand{\root}[2][]{\,\sqrt[#1]{\,{#2}\,}\,}
 \newcommand{\totald}[3][]{\frac{\mathrm{d}^{#1} #2}{\mathrm{d} #3^{#1}}}
 \newcommand{\verts}[1]{\left\vert\,{#1}\,\right\vert}$

Lets consider $\ds{\int_{\large z\ =\ R\expo{\ic\pars{-\pi + \epsilon,\pi - \epsilon}}}{\ln^{2}\pars{z} \over z^{3} - 1}\,\dd z}$
  where $\ds{R > 1}$ and $\ds{0 < \epsilon < \pi}$.
  The $\ds{\ln}$-branch-cut is defined by
  $\ds{\ln\pars{z} = \ln\pars{\verts{z}} + \arg\pars{z}\ic\,,\quad
\arg\pars{z} \in \pars{-\pi,\pi}\,,\quad z \not = 0}$.

Then,
\begin{align}
&\int_{\large z\ =\ R\expo{\ic\pars{-\pi + \epsilon,\pi - \epsilon}}}{\ln^{2}\pars{z} \over z^{3} - 1}\,\dd z
\,\,\,\stackrel{\mrm{as}\ \epsilon\ \to\ 0^{+}}{\sim}\,\,\,
\oint_{\mc{C}}{\ln^{2}\pars{z} \over z^{3} - 1}\,\dd z
\\[2mm] &\
-\int_{-R}^{-\epsilon}{\bracks{\ln\pars{-x} + \ic\pi}^{2} \over
x^{3} - 1}\,\dd x
- \int_{-\epsilon}^{-R}{\bracks{\ln\pars{-x} - \ic\pi}^{2} \over
x^{3} - 1}\,\dd x
\\[2mm] & -
\int_{\pi}^{-\pi}{\bracks{\ln\pars{\epsilon} + \ic\theta}^{2} \over
\epsilon^{3} - 1}\,\epsilon\expo{\ic\theta}\ic\,\dd\theta
\end{align}

*

*The integral in the LHS $\ds{\to 0}$ as $\ds{R \to \infty}$.

*$\mc{C}$ is a key-hole contour wich "takes cares" of the above mentioned branch-cut.

*The last integral, in the RHS, $\ds{\to 0}$ as $\ds{\epsilon \to 0^{+}}$.

*Poles of $\ds{\ln^{2}\pars{z} \over z^{3} - 1}$ belong to
$\ds{\braces{\expo{-2\pi\ic/3},\expo{2\pi\ic/3}}}$.

We are left with
\begin{align}
0 & = 2\pi\ic\sum\mrm{Res}
\bracks{\ln^{2}\pars{z} \over z^{3} - 1} +
\int_{0}^{\infty}{\bracks{\ln\pars{x} + \ic\pi}^{\, 2} -
\bracks{\ln\pars{x} - \ic\pi}^{\, 2} \over x^{3} + 1}\,\dd x
\\[5mm] & =
2\pi\ic\sum_{r\ \in\ \braces{\expo{-2\pi\ic/3},\expo{2\pi\ic/3}}}
{1 \over 3}\,r\ln^{2}\pars{r} +
4\pi\ic\int_{0}^{\infty}{\ln\pars{x} \over x^{3} + 1}\,\dd x
\\[5mm] & =
2\pi\ic\
\underbrace{\bracks{{1 \over 3}\, 2\Re\pars{\expo{2\pi\ic/3}}
\pars{2\pi\ic \over 3}^{2}}}_{\ds{4\pi^{2} \over 27}}\  +
4\pi\ic\int_{0}^{\infty}{\ln\pars{x} \over x^{3} + 1}\,\dd x
\\[8mm] & \implies
\bbx{\int_{0}^{\infty}{\ln\pars{x} \over x^{3} + 1}\,\dd x =
-\,{2\pi^{2} \over 27}} \approx -0.7311
\end{align}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On behalf of the Corporation of Delta, Council accepted a Certificate of Recognition for Safety from Cathy Cook, Executive Director of the BC Municipal Safety Association.
Council received a delegation of Keith McGee, Board Chair, Delta Hospital Foundation, and Veronica Carroll, Executive Director, Delta Hospital Foundation, who presented the Delta Hospital Foundation Capital Campaign for Diagnostic Services Expansion.
Council approved the 2013 Consolidated Financial Statements, as prepared in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards and audited by the accounting firm BDO. View the staff report.
Council received an update on the Ladner Leisure Centre retrofit project. The update detailed key milestones achieved from April 1–May 7, and provided further objectives for May, including installation of steel supports and demolition of existing walls. View the staff report.
Council authorized staff to move forward with securing detailed design and cost estimates for capacity and esthetic improvements at Boundary Bay and North Delta cemeteries. View the staff report.


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Home»Today's Stories
Closure of international schools highlight alarming practice
There is evidence of immigration abuse among a minority writes Niall Murray
On September 2, ministers Jan O'Sullivan and Frances Fitzgerald promised regulations by January to bring to an end a string of closures at colleges catering for non-EU students.
But the closure of three more in recent weeks has brought to 15 the number of such colleges to shut their doors in little over a year.
The efforts of the Departments of Education and Justice were somewhat hampered by a High Court decision in mid-January that effectively told them their plan to restrict student visa eligibility to those on courses with a certain accreditation was unfair.
However, while plans by those departments to bring new reform proposals to Cabinet in two weeks were promised yesterday, there are wider questions about why the situation has been allowed to continue.
DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS
As the Department of Education rightly pointed out in a statement, the vast majority of private providers of English language training in this country operate to a high standard. However, as the department also said, the recent closures of some private colleges have highlighted a number of concerning practices within certain parts of the sector.
"Issues have arisen regarding the governance of a number of these colleges, with evidence of immigration abuse on the part of a minority of providers and students," a department statement said. "These practices can have very serious implications for students genuinely arriving in Ireland to improve their English skills."
But such practices were seemingly only acted on by an immigration services crackdown a year ago after issues highlighted in the media about compliance with visa regulations.
In some cases, students were registered at colleges to qualify for student visas but attended few, if any, of the classes required under the terms of those visas.
The clampdown that followed from April 2014 saw many colleges removed from the list of institutions whose courses were eligible for such visas, turning off their cashflow and leading to abrupt closures.
The Taskforce on Students Affected by the Closure of Private Colleges, which was created in June last year, was set out as a Government effort to tackle the problem — but questions must be answered as to why it was only this crisis which led it to act.
In the meantime, thousands more students have been hit by the loss of fees and the disruption to education for those who were here for genuine study reasons. Their stories have hardly changed in the 12 months since the issue first emerged, with many of those marching Dublin having paid fees of at least €1,000 each in advance, only to arrive in Ireland as the college was closing down.
With the support of the Irish Council for International Students, a key priority for them is the introduction of a system of protection for student fees. Such a scheme would require course providers to keep students' fees and deposits in a secure account, separate from their main business and available to be returned to students in the event of a closure.
The Department of Education statement promising reforms says that the department will, among other things, improve protection for learners.
But any such changes, if and when they take effect, will probably offer little consolation to thousands of international students who have already lost out.
Sinn Féin education spokesman Jonathan O'Brien said this is not a new problem and the Government can not continue to allow 'cowboy language schools' operate in this manner.
"If [the Government] are going to continue to operate the myth that Ireland is one of the greatest places to study English, they have a responsibility to ensure that this is true," he said.
International students demand protection
The need for proper protection of students who have paid fees to defunct colleges was the subject of a protest march in Dublin yesterday.
More than 100 people turned out to voice anger at what they call the continuing lack of action by Government departments or agencies to regulate the international education sector.
Since plans for regulations were announced last September by Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, a number of colleges have closed. The latest were three that ceased operations in Dublin in the last month, affecting around 2,500 students, with strong fears for the immediate future of another in the capital.
Many of those affected were among the protestors who marched from Quality and Qualifications Ireland to the Department of Justice's Irish Naturalisation & Immigration Service and to the Dáil. They carried signs showing the amounts they had paid, most in the range of €1,000 to €2,000. Some protesters' colleges had closed before their courses had even started.
Teachers and other staff also took part in the protest, supported by the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS), which said they are calling for Government support in the form of robust regulation of the sector and protection of student fees.
"There has been no clear response from the Irish authorities to the growing crisis, which has gained fresh momentum in recent weeks with another spate of closures," said ICOS director Sheila Power.
"International students have sustained huge financial losses from a year of college closures. There can be little surprise that both students and staff are taking to the streets again to call for urgent action."
The Department of Education said a package of reforms it and the Department of Justice are proposing to the student immigration system for international education will be brought to the Cabinet in the next two weeks.
"These reforms will drive a restructuring in the sector which will improve the overall quality of offering to international students, improve protection for learners, enhance Ireland's reputation, and diminish negative impacts on the Irish labour market and social protection costs, strongly in line with the goals of Ireland's international education strategy," a department spokesperson said.
International CollegesJan O SullivanFrances Fitzgerald


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Since 1857, The Atlantic has been challenging assumptions and pursuing truth.
https://www.theatlantic.com/
Taiwan Prepares to Be Invaded
By Ben Rhodes
Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro. Sources: Bloomberg / Getty; PeterHermesFurian / Getty.
Taiwan's presidential offices are located in a sprawling, stately complex built by the Japanese colonial administration in the early 20th century—a reminder that, for all the belligerent rhetoric coming from the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan has not been firmly under Beijing's control for well over 100 years. When I arrived at the offices in September for an interview with President Tsai Ing-wen, it occurred to me that the large tower rising above the entrance might become a target in the event of an invasion.
Now in her sixth year in power, Tsai is Taiwan's first female president. We met in a cavernous room decorated with orchids and a grandfather clock. When she entered, she was trailed by a retinue of aides—mostly men. Tsai was brisk, friendly, and businesslike. There was little small talk as we sat across from each other in armchairs. Tsai projected a reserved assurance. I told her that I wanted to know what it was like to face a mounting threat, particularly after the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin—Chinese President Xi Jinping's self-proclaimed "best friend" on the world stage. Tsai or some future Taiwanese leader could soon have the dubious distinction of playing the role of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to Xi's Putin.
"It's real that this thing could happen to us," Tsai said. "So we need to get ourselves ready." At another point, she emphasized: "There is a genuine threat out there. It's not hype."
Fate has placed Taiwan and Ukraine in similar positions. Both have giant neighbors who once ruled them as imperial possessions. Both have undergone democratic transformations and have thus become an ideological danger to the autocrats who covet their territory. Just as Putin has made the erasure of Ukraine's sovereignty central to his political project, Xi has vowed to unify China and Taiwan, by force if necessary. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned in October that China may be working on a "much faster timeline" for dealing—somehow—with Taiwan. U.S. military and intelligence leaders have pointed to 2027 as a potential time frame for an invasion, believing that China's military modernization will have advanced sufficiently by then.
The situation requires Tsai to perform a careful balancing act: preparing for war while seeking to avoid it.
Tsai is the youngest of 11 children born to the owner of an auto-repair store. She speaks English with a faint trace of a British accent—she did postgraduate work at the London School of Economics. Tsai chooses her words carefully and appears at peace with the role that history has assigned her. She is well aware of the stakes. Taiwan's 24 million people have developed their own distinctive and open culture, their own democratic institutions. Her position toward China and the People's Liberation Army is defiant: She made clear to me that the Taiwanese will not be bullied, and that Beijing should not misjudge their resolve. "If the PLA wants to do something drastic, Xi has to weigh the costs," Tsai said. "He has to think twice."
Of course, a war with China would be enormously lopsided. Tsai noted that the Taiwan legislature recently passed a double-digit increase in the defense budget; Taiwan is now on pace to spend more than $19 billion on defense in 2023. But China spends more than $200 billion a year. This has prompted calls for a shift in Taiwan's defense priorities. Instead of building large, conventional hardware (airplanes, tanks, submarines), military experts have urged Taiwan to focus on so-called asymmetric capabilities (anti-ship weapons, surface-to-air missiles, stockpiles of small arms and ammunition), which have served Ukraine well in repelling a larger invader. That, combined with a bigger force of civilian reserves, could make the cost of an invasion too high for China. This approach has earned a nickname in global defense circles: "the porcupine strategy."
From Tsai's perspective, it is important to remain low-key and unrattled, but also to build up the capacity for Taiwan to defend itself. During China's particularly aggressive military exercises in August—mounted in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island—Tsai maintained what appeared to be a normal schedule, attending a cultural festival but also visiting with troops. She described to me a resilient calm among younger people. They want to get trained, she said. "They're not trying to escape."
China's threatening behavior, meanwhile, has only escalated. Chinese officials have repeatedly expressed the view that the entirety of the Taiwan Strait already belongs to China. Chinese warplanes regularly violate Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone. During the military exercises conducted after Pelosi's visit, China shot missiles over Taiwan and encircled it with warships in a maneuver that hinted at a future blockade—no small concern for an island that imports nearly all of its energy.
War is never inevitable, but if it comes, it would have world-changing consequences. A thriving democracy could be extinguished. The Chinese Communist Party could be either emboldened or destabilized. Given Taiwan's dominance of the semiconductor industry and the disruption of U.S.-China trade, the global economy could suffer a shock far greater than the one caused by the war in Ukraine. And the United States could be drawn into its first direct military conflict with a nuclear-armed superpower.
Taiwan's formal status has been unresolved for decades. Neither independent nor part of the People's Republic of China, the citizens of Taiwan have lived within a tenuous status quo constructed by diplomats. Essentially, the arrangement has worked like this: Taiwan doesn't declare independence, China doesn't invade, and the U.S. doesn't say definitively whether it would enter a conflict should one occur.
The type of support that Taiwan now needs—to deter a conflict or to defend itself if conflict comes—is a subject of growing debate in Taipei and Washington. The last time there was a military crisis in the Taiwan Strait was in 1995, ahead of Taiwan's first democratic presidential election. China test-fired ballistic missiles and conducted rehearsals for an amphibious invasion. The U.S. countered by sending an aircraft-carrier group and other naval assets to the region, demonstrating its overwhelming military advantage. Things have changed since then. China now has the world's largest navy, with more than 350 ships and submarines. Its rocket force maintains the world's largest arsenal of land-based missiles, which would feature in any war with Taiwan.
Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, who was chief of Taiwan's General Staff from 2017 to 2019, has championed the shift to asymmetric capabilities and has emerged as a Cassandra-like figure in his warnings that Taiwan is not preparing fast enough. His rigid military manner is animated by a blunt sense of urgency. Like officials I spoke with who are still in government, Lee saw the Chinese response to the Pelosi visit as another step in Beijing's pursuit of a "new normal." On more than one occasion China has pushed beyond the median line in the waters between Taiwan and China. Its flights into Taiwan's air-defense zone have escalated. China is eating away at Taiwan's sovereignty, de facto claiming its airspace and waters. Several analysts have used the phrase boiling the frog to describe Beijing's Taiwan strategy.
This new normal presents challenges to both Taiwan and the United States. China's conventional firepower could overwhelm Taiwan's air and naval defenses—its capacity to keep the enemy at a distance. China could also move quickly to deny the U.S. access to the island, cutting it off from the outside world by sea and air. Politically, Lee said, the message from China to the U.S. and Taiwan is simple: "I can do whatever I want in Taiwan, and there's nothing the U.S. can do about it." This message came across unequivocally in a white paper that Beijing released in August. The Cliffs Notes version of this lengthy document can be surmised from the first three section headings: "I. Taiwan Is Part of China—This Is an Indisputable Fact," "II. Resolute Efforts of the CPC to Realize China's Complete Reunification," and "III. China's Complete Reunification Is a Process That Cannot Be Halted."
Lee points to two possible scenarios. The first is a coercive approach in which China encircles and pressures Taiwan—perhaps even seizing outlying islands and engaging in missile strikes. The second is a full-scale invasion. Given that China would likely suffer the same international consequences for conducting a war of attrition as it would for mounting an outright invasion, Lee worries that Beijing might decide the invasion scenario makes more sense. Lee has grown frustrated by Taiwan's continued procurement of large weapons systems, such as airplanes and ships. He argues that it is not worth trying to keep up with China's conventional superiority. To take just one example: In the event of a war, Chinese missiles could destroy Taiwan's runways, rendering expensive fighter jets useless.
You may not be able to stop an invasion, Lee says, but you can stop China from subjugating Taiwan. This entails denying China the ability to control the battle space. The Chinese haven't fought a war in several decades, and Taiwan has geographic advantages—including ample mountains and few beaches suitable for amphibious operations. Anti-ship missiles, anti-tank weapons, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, drones, long-range artillery, and small arms could wreak havoc on an invading force, and disrupt the supply chains necessary to sustain an occupation. Lee also argues that Taiwan's civilian population should be organized into a trained Territorial Defense Force, so that any attempted occupation would be met by the broadest possible resistance. "As long as China fails, Taiwan wins the war," Lee explained.
The utility of this approach has become clearer after Russia's calamitous "special military operation" in Ukraine. "The purpose is to make China believe that if you want to invade Taiwan, you will suffer huge losses," Lee said. "And if you still invade Taiwan, you will not be able to succeed." This will require a continued shift in Taiwan's own defense doctrine. That shift has been encouraged by the Biden administration and was evident in September's $1.1 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which included a substantial number of anti-ship Harpoon missiles and Sidewinder surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. But as Lee sees it, the pace must quicken. "Taiwan needs a strategic paradigm shift," he told me.
In her own deliberate and incremental fashion, Tsai has directed some defense spending in this direction and expressed support for training civilians in nonmilitary skills such as "community defense, first aid, and information awareness." Given that Taiwan's largest destination for trade and investment is China, Tsai is also working to diversify Taiwan's economy to make it less reliant on that market, launching new trade talks with the United States and pursuing trade and investment in Southeast Asia. She has created a Ministry of Digital Affairs and bolstered cyberdefenses to respond to constant Chinese hacking and disinformation campaigns. As a pointed reminder, she speaks openly about the island's dominance in advanced semiconductors—Taiwan manufactures 90 percent of them—which she calls a "silicon shield." A war that curbed supply could prove highly disruptive for Beijing—perhaps too disruptive. Tsai's foreign policy has also courted other democracies, seeking friends with similar values.
How did we get to this point? The origin story of Taiwan most familiar to Americans begins in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces, locked for years in a civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists, were defeated. Along with much of his remaining army, Chiang fled to Taiwan and set up a government-in-exile called the Republic of China. That government was recognized by the United States. But within a few years of Richard Nixon's 1972 Cold War opening to Beijing, the U.S. formally switched diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic. Ever since, Taiwan's status has been cloaked in ambiguity. The U.S. acknowledges Beijing's claim to Taiwan without recognizing its sovereignty over the island. To help deter a Chinese effort to seize Taiwan by force, the U.S. has pledged to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
That origin story explains Taiwan's curious geopolitical status, but it leaves a lot out. When Chiang fled to Taiwan—with roughly 2 million Chinese from the mainland—there were some 6 million people already living on an island that was just emerging from 50 years of Japanese rule. Most of the people living on the island when Chiang arrived could claim roots in Taiwan going back hundreds of years. They had their own languages and culture. So too did the island's many Indigenous groups, such as the Amis, the Atayal, and the Paiwan. To subjugate the island, Chiang killed and imprisoned tens of thousands over decades—a period known as the White Terror. He set up a military dictatorship under the leadership of his Chinese nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT) and, from this offshore platform, vowed to reclaim mainland China.
Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro. Sources: Keystone-France / Getty; Datawrapper.
Taiwan is different now. With its broad boulevards, glass towers, military monuments, narrow side streets, night markets, and ample signs in English, Taipei today presents an ambience of blended cultures: Chinese, Japanese, Western, and distinctly Taiwanese. Bubble tea, a Taiwanese invention, is everywhere. But consider what it was like to grow up in the shadow of Taiwan's postwar history, and you can better understand the profound ways in which younger generations have been remaking the island's politics and identity.
Emily Y. Wu is a professional podcaster who blends a focus on youth culture with an urgent concern for Taiwan's political present. (One of her shows is called Metalhead Politics.) She is among dozens of Taiwanese I spoke with during the past year, first on Zoom, then in person in Taipei. Wu was born under KMT martial law in 1984. Her family did not come over with Chiang; they had lived in Taiwan for generations. "Chiang Kai-shek brought China over," she told me. "I grew up always knowing that there was this alternate history: It was Taiwanese history, which was not taught in school." Students were taught Chinese history and geography under the presumption that the KMT would one day govern China again. Mandarin was spoken in class, and speaking Taiwanese was discouraged. Wu recalled Lesson 9 of her childhood textbook: " 'Hello teachers, hello students, we are Chinese!' "
But a movement for democracy was building. "We grew up hearing these names, knowing that there was a group of activists, scholars, lawyers that tried to imagine a free Taiwan," Wu explained. Many of those people were members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which currently governs Taiwan. In 1987, the KMT lifted nearly 40 years of martial law. Wu's political consciousness was shaped by the protests, marches, and hunger strikes that led to Taiwan's first true presidential election, in 1996.
By the beginning of the 21st century, Taiwan was becoming ever more democratic—and ever more Taiwanese. The school curriculum changed: Taiwan's distinct history was taught, as were Taiwanese languages. Taiwan also began to celebrate its Indigenous population. After the election of President Ma Ying-jeou, in 2008, links of trade, investment, and travel helped reduce tensions with China. Ma was from the KMT, and the party's Chinese heritage and its ties to Taiwan's business elite eased the way to détente with Beijing. But many Taiwanese, particularly the young, feared that forging too close a connection could ultimately give Beijing leverage over Taiwan. In 2014, in what became known as "the Sunflower Movement," named for the flower that served as a symbol of hope, students occupied the Taiwan legislature to oppose a free-trade agreement with China. After a tense standoff, they succeeded in stopping the deal. They also helped propel a political wave that in 2016 brought the election of the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen as president.
As Taiwan was becoming more democratic, China was becoming more autocratic. And as Taiwan was becoming more Taiwanese, China was becoming more fervently nationalist. After the ascent of Xi Jinping to the head of the Communist Party, in 2012, Beijing shifted from incentives to coercion. Xi's government proved adept at bullying companies and entire countries to stop doing business in Taiwan and to recognize China's narrative of sovereignty. Xi also began escalating crackdowns on China's periphery—in Xinjiang province and in Hong Kong.
When Xi first took power, Emily Wu was living in Beijing. "I felt the tightening of the space that Taiwan was allowed to navigate," she recalled. "It was all around me—every move that Xi Jinping was making. You're sitting in China and I'm like, How can I sit here while looking at what is happening and not being able to do anything about it? " Wu moved back to Taiwan and started a company named Ghost Island Media, picking up on a bit of local black humor that captures Taiwan's ambiguous status. Through podcasts in Mandarin and English, Ghost Island offers a window into the perilous irony of Taiwan's existence: The more successful the Taiwanese are in building their own democracy, the more endangered they are by a China that feels this ghost island eluding its grasp.
During one of our conversations, I used the term status quo, and Wu asked me what I thought it meant. "You are not independent, but China has not invaded your country," I replied. Wu paused for a moment, and then said, "I always thought the idea of status quo is really interesting, because in the American context that is what it means. But the idea of it here is: There is no need to declare independence, because we are already independent. This country functions like an independent nation, but someone else says it is not." Recent polling suggests that fewer than 5 percent of people in Taiwan identify as "only Chinese."
For decades, China and Taiwan have conducted intermittent negotiations. From China's perspective, the starting point for any dialogue must be the so-called 1992 Consensus. This refers to the outcome of meetings between Chinese and KMT officials 30 years ago, an outcome that represents anything but consensus. To the Chinese Communist Party, the consensus is that there is one China, and the government in Beijing is the sole legitimate authority. To the KMT, the consensus is that there is one China, but the Republic of China in Taiwan is the legitimate government. To the DPP, there is no consensus, only a fraught political reality to be managed. Past Chinese leaders tolerated differing interpretations, but that changed with Xi. Any negotiations, Xi insists, can only address the terms under which Taiwan submits to the sovereignty of the People's Republic. Tsai has not been willing to enter negotiations on those terms.
China proposes a "one country, two systems" regime, in which Taiwan becomes a formal part of China but maintains an autonomous political system. There is one big problem with this proposal: Hong Kong. In 1997, in accordance with a formal agreement between the United Kingdom and China, Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty under a similar one-country-two-systems formula. The agreement stipulated that Hong Kong would be able to maintain its own distinct political, economic, and legal framework for 50 years. The deal seemed to work at first. But as China became more powerful and prosperous, it encroached upon life in Hong Kong. Media outlets started to be bought up by Chinese tycoons. Economic advancement became contingent on not crossing political lines. Large numbers of Mandarin speakers from the mainland started moving into Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong. The school curriculum shifted in the direction of the Communist Party's point of view. It was precisely the kind of outcome that the Sunflower Movement had resisted in Taiwan.
In 2019, Hong Kong authorities sought to appease Beijing by introducing a law that allowed residents of Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China—removing a guardrail around the city's legal status. Protests exploded and continued for months. Then, in 2020, several "national-security laws" were passed giving the authorities broad powers to crush dissent. Activists were rounded up. Independent media were shut down. One country, two systems was dead. The fate of Hong Kong has had a profound impact on Taiwan. "When China moves in, the freedom is gone," President Tsai told me. "People in Taiwan got a very strong message."
Min-yen Chiang certainly got the message. As a high-school student in Taiwan, he joined the Sunflower Movement. When he went to Hong Kong for university, he embraced the 2014 "Umbrella Movement," whose members occupied Hong Kong's central business district for 79 days, demanding free and fair elections. In 2019, after graduation, Chiang joined the protests in Hong Kong. He learned firsthand what happened next.
I met with Chiang at the Taipei office of Flow HK, a magazine that focuses on Hong Kong's movement for democracy. It was a hot day, soupy with humidity, but Chiang switched on a small air conditioner only after we were settled in a spartan conference room. On one wall was a poster that read, in Chinese characters, "Protect Taiwan, Resist China, Support Hong Kong." Chiang spoke softly but with assurance as he described his efforts to change Taiwan's laws in order to better protect refugees. "When we are supporting Hong Kong," he said, "we are thinking about how to resist China."
In swallowing Hong Kong, Xi may have made it impossible to repeat the same playbook with Taiwan. But the fate of Ukraine has shown that a bullying neighbor has more extreme options. At the beginning of Russia's war, Chiang organized a press conference with the small Ukrainian population in Taipei. "They always tell me that we have prepared for this war for at least eight years, since 2014," he said, referring to the initial Russian invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. "I don't think Taiwanese young people can confidently say that." But more and more leaders in civic organizations and the press are learning how to speak English so they can communicate better with the outside world. "Ukraine inspired the Taiwanese society a lot, including how Zelensky told their story," Chiang said. He was almost matter-of-fact when he told me, "I would say war between China and Taiwan will definitely happen. We want to win."
The best outcome for Taiwan would be avoiding a war and maintaining the ambiguous status quo. That requires immense discipline, both in presidential statements and in ordinary interactions with the wider world.
When I landed in Taipei, people in spacesuit-style medical uniforms directed bleary-eyed travelers to a series of stations that had to be navigated before entering the country. Early in the pandemic, Chinese propaganda constantly attacked Tsai's response. Mocking the island's reliance on America, Chinese memes suggested that the U.S. was vaccinating pets before offering shots to Taiwan. I scanned a QR code to access my preflight forms and was notified that I needed a Taiwanese phone so the police could ensure I maintained three days of quarantine. At a series of tables, young health workers explained the process of inserting SIM cards into phones. An American next to me became frustrated. But the Taiwanese woman behind the counter was patient and kind, explaining—again and again—how it was done.
This was a snapshot of Taiwan's self-control. To permit widespread COVID infections would validate Beijing's brutal information war against Taiwan—despite the fact that Beijing's stubborn "zero COVID" policy has backfired on its own economy and society. To be anything less than unfailingly polite to visitors could undermine the relationships that Taiwan is relentlessly trying to build. I was reminded of a comment that Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's representative in Washington, made to me: "We have to be the perfect student in the class to protect ourselves from bullying and help us make friends."
President Tsai plays that part well. She was born to humble circumstances, and her family has deep roots in Taiwan. Indeed, her paternal grandmother is descended from one of the island's Indigenous tribes, the Paiwan. Tsai earned a law degree and was a law-school professor for a time. Entering public life, she served in a variety of government posts on trade and relations with China before joining the DPP in 2004. She steadied the party after corruption scandals and led it to victory following a narrow loss in the 2012 presidential election. Her campaigns have featured her two cats, Think Think and Ah Tsai.
Tsai met with me after receiving yet another U.S. congressional delegation—Taiwan is becoming a must-stop for members of both parties trying to assert their national-security bona fides. A DPP administration makes for an enigmatic interlocutor. In some ways, the party is more comfortable with Republican China hawks than with Democrats wary of projecting American power. Yet the party is also progressive. Tsai formally apologized to Indigenous groups for centuries of mistreatment; she pledged to have their languages taught in schools and to honor Indigenous cultures. Tsai's government was the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Announcing her support for marriage equality, Tsai said, "Let everyone be able to freely love and pursue happiness." Whether American visitors represent the right or left, every delegation gets presidential attention.
In our conversation, Tsai talked about what she had learned from Ukraine. One lesson is simply the need for international support—to defend itself or, better, to avoid a war in the first place. "The Western countries, particularly the U.S., are helping Ukraine. What we see from the Ukraine war is Western countries get together and help Ukraine to fight." Because Taiwan is an island, it will be difficult to resupply in the event of hostilities; Taiwan needs support now. Even though the U.S. didn't enter the war after Russia's invasion, it did offer Ukraine essential weapons, supplies, and budgetary assistance. "These people do help others," Tsai said, referring to the West as if speaking to her own citizens.
Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro. Sources: Travel Wild / Alamy; PeterHermesFurian / Getty.
Another lesson of Ukraine is the importance of national character. Outside support, Tsai emphasized, depends on qualities only Taiwan can provide. "You need to have good leadership," she said, "but more important is the people's determination to defend themselves, and the Ukrainian people showed that."
Such determination is essential to the kind of paradigm shift Admiral Lee has advocated. It is a daunting prospect. The more you plan to resist an invasion, the more you risk panicking the population and the more challenges you realize you'll have to face. Small- and mobile-weapons systems have to be secured against attack by Chinese missiles. Plans must be put in place to ensure that the government can communicate with its people if standard forms of communication are disrupted. The government must also prioritize crucial infrastructure, defend against cyberattacks, stockpile food and water, and decentralize the electricity grid. Instead of creating a Territorial Defense Force, thus far the Tsai administration has opted to bolster its reserve forces; the military has issued a survival handbook on civil defense in case of war.
Taiwan has term limits, preventing President Tsai from running again. Taiwan's voters will have an important decision to make in 2024. The opposition KMT party is staking out its position with care. The party's representative to the United States, an amiable academic and veteran diplomat named Alex Huang, told me that the KMT was more oriented to the U.S. relationship than it had been at times in the past, but it still supports dialogue with China. Instead of the ambitious trade agreements of the Ma Ying-jeou years, Huang said engagement should focus on threat reduction and crisis management. Implicit in his argument was the notion that inflaming China by severing ties and fully embracing the United States could put Taiwan's very existence at risk—extinguishing both the DPP's vision of a de facto independent Taiwan and the KMT's hope for some future conciliation with a changed China. For their part, members of the DPP—and many young Taiwanese—worry that the KMT might turn Taiwan into a second Hong Kong.
Hanging over all of this is the role of the United States. As one Taiwanese expert pointedly asked me: "We can make ourselves a porcupine, but what are you going to do?"
On four separate occasions, President Joe Biden has said that the U.S. would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Each time, the White House put out a follow-up statement saying that U.S. policy had not in fact changed.
This U.S. policy is known as "strategic ambiguity." The U.S. has no mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, as it does with NATO allies and countries like Japan and South Korea. For decades, there has been bipartisan consensus that declaring a commitment to defend Taiwan could make a war more likely: Taiwan could trigger a conflict by declaring independence, or China could feel compelled to enforce its "One China" red line. By remaining inscrutable, Washington forces China to consider the likelihood of the U.S. coming to Taiwan's defense, even as Washington accepts the current status quo. Biden's statements, however, have not been ambiguous and stand in contrast to his statements before the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the U.S. would not intervene directly.
The Biden administration has been more cautious in practice than in rhetoric. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently advanced the bipartisan Taiwan Policy Act, which goes beyond authorizing arms sales to financing arms sales with money from American taxpayers. But the administration quietly lobbied to remove provisions that would have been seen by Beijing as moving in the direction of diplomatic recognition—such as making the position of the senior American diplomat in Taipei a job that requires Senate confirmation, as ambassadorships do. The administration has also resisted the Taiwan Policy Act's call to ramp up training and joint military exercises.
Like President Tsai, the Biden administration is trying to walk a line, better preparing Taiwan while not unnecessarily provoking China. That requires some guesswork about what lessons China may have drawn from Ukraine. Will Xi see Ukraine's military success as a warning against invading a neighbor that is building up asymmetric capabilities? Or will he decide he has to invade before Taiwan is sufficiently armed and trained?
American politics has its own anti-China momentum. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech earlier this year in Taipei arguing that the U.S. should formally recognize Taiwan as a nation-state. But performative rhetoric and symbolic gestures that play well to domestic political constituencies suggest a clarity that does not exist. Would the U.S. risk the biggest naval battle since World War II to break a Chinese blockade? Would the U.S. attack an invading Chinese force knowing that U.S. military personnel in Japan, Guam, and possibly Hawaii are within range of Chinese rockets? Would the American people really support a war with the world's most populous country in order to defend Taiwan?
Perhaps for this reason, everyone I spoke with in Taiwan focused more on how the U.S. can help prepare Taiwan than on what the U.S. would do in a conflict. As war has grown more likely, Taiwanese attitudes have shifted too. A poll taken after the invasion of Ukraine showed that the number of people in Taiwan who expect the U.S. to send troops in the event of war fell from 57 to 40 percent, while 73 percent said they would fight to defend themselves. Seeing the difference that eight years of training made for Ukraine, many believe that increased training should be quietly pursued. Given that the U.S. does have a formal agreement to help prepare Taiwan to defend itself, training the Taiwanese would be a logical response and consistent with existing U.S. commitments. In contrast, joint military exercises would suggest a role for the U.S. military that extends beyond preparing Taiwan to defend itself.
The U.S. can also take nonmilitary steps. It should make every effort to deepen and regularize diplomatic openings with China on Taiwan—to avoid an incident that could escalate, and to manage tensions. The U.S. can also expand its trade relationship with Taiwan to make it less vulnerable to Chinese coercion and more embedded in secure supply chains. As the U.S. fosters its own semiconductor industry, it can partner with Taipei to avoid undercutting Taiwan's. The U.S. can work diplomatically to increase Taiwan's cooperation with other democracies, including on practical issues where Taiwan has expertise—public health, cybersecurity, and combatting disinformation. The U.S. and other democracies can also specify to China the far-reaching economic consequences—including sanctions—that would be triggered by any effort to take Taiwan by force.
Much of this is already on the agenda for Biden and the Tsai administration. Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, in particular, has articulated the need for Taiwan to counter its diplomatic isolation by emphasizing democracy. He has made inroads in Europe, where some countries have shown a willingness to step up engagement with Taiwan. "This is especially so for Central and Eastern European countries," he told me. "They were ruled by Communists and understand the difficulties of the threat from an authoritarian country." Lithuania, for instance, weathered a furious Chinese response after it allowed Taiwan to open an office in its capital, Vilnius. This may seem like a small step, but it boosts morale in Taiwan. As Hsiao Bi-khim told me, "If you tell people on the streets of Taiwan that you are Lithuanian, you will be treated with great admiration."
Still, these small victories only point up the scale of the challenge. Wu himself has used the term cognitive warfare to describe the comprehensive nature of China's pressure on Taiwan. "They use missiles, air, ships, disinformation, cyberattacks, and economic coercion," he told me. As a warning sign, China has banned hundreds of exported products from Taiwan. "They claimed that our mangoes tested positive for COVID," Wu said. "I don't think you can give a mango a PCR." Thanks to Chinese pressure, the number of countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan has fallen to a new low of 14. In the 2019 trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, the Taiwanese flag that was on Tom Cruise's flight jacket in the first film was removed to suit Chinese tastes. (It was later restored; the movie was never released in China.)
I asked Wu, who was educated at Ohio State, how he would make the case to a bunch of college-football fans at a tailgate for why they should care about Taiwan. After declaring himself a Buckeye, he paused, sensing the import of the exercise. First, he noted, "if there's a Chinese invasion, the economic impact is going to be more serious than Ukraine."
More existential, though, is what could happen after a Chinese invasion. If China takes Taiwan, Wu suggested that the Chinese Communist Party's ambitions could extend to the East China Sea, threatening Japan; to the South China Sea, where China has built militarized islands and claims an entire body of water bordering several nations; to the Indian Ocean, where China is expanding influence and could establish military bases; and to the Pacific Ocean, where China is working to establish security pacts with island nations. In a world with nationalist-strongman politics ascendant on nearly every continent, Wu's presentation was at once a dire and plausible picture of the stakes for geopolitics as well as human freedom. "If we allow China to continue to expand," Wu told me, "then democracies will be in danger."
On one of my last nights in Taipei, I met with a woman in her early 30s named Billion Lee who helps run Cofacts, an organization that fact-checks disinformation and promotes digital literacy. Relying on a crowdsourced network of more than 2,000 volunteers, Cofacts has done nearly 90,000 fact-checks, mostly on the ubiquitous Taiwanese social-media platform Line. I asked her about Beijing-driven narratives that accompanied the invasion of Ukraine, and they sounded conspicuously similar to those emanating from Moscow. As bombs began falling on Ukraine, the people of Taiwan were bombarded by Chinese-fueled disinformation campaigns: The U.S. was developing biological weapons in Ukraine. Taiwan will be next if they keep buying weapons from America. These overlapped with narratives I'd heard about from other Taiwanese: Afghanistan showed that Americans don't keep their promises. The Americans won't send troops to defend white people in Ukraine, so they will never send them to defend you. Lee noted that her generation had developed antibodies to such campaigns, but China was focusing on younger demographics as well—teenagers and preteens—through Chinese apps like TikTok.
After a quick dinner of soba noodles, we walked a short distance to a small alley off a bustling main boulevard and met Johnson Liang, a young man with shoulder-length hair and round glasses that made him look like a Taiwanese John Lennon. Liang took out a large metal key to open the door to a shared workspace. We removed our shoes and walked into a back conference room. Lee passed out moon cakes and Liang connected his laptop to a projector that showed his screen on a bare wall.
The two of them explained that they were developing a tool that could enable fact-checkers to compare shared images and transcripts with similar content online, thus making it easier to do the painstaking work of sorting fact from falsehood. As they went about their work, I scrolled through the latest fact-checks. One involved a lengthy speech that was alleged to have been transcribed from a private recording of French President Emmanuel Macron speaking with diplomats in Paris and blaming the U.S. for all of the trouble in the world. "We must admit that China and Russia have achieved great success over the years under different leadership styles," Macron supposedly said. (The speech was labeled a falsehood.) Another post, also flagged as false, talked about how the U.S. has been trying to turn "blue" (the KMT) and "green" (the DPP) against each other: "The ultimate goal is to ask Taiwan to die to the last man."
I sat there reading message after message, all posted in closed chat rooms, meant to bend Taiwanese minds to Beijing's worldview. The meanings of buzzwords like cognitive warfare and resilience came into sharper focus. Facing the seemingly bottomless resources of a massive totalitarian state, here were two young people working for free on a Wednesday night, quietly insisting on the notion that there is indeed such a thing as objective reality.
I walked out into Taipei streets filled with people and a pulsing array of advertising. Commuters who'd worked late streamed onto the elevated metro. Packs of teenagers laughed on street corners. All totally ordinary. And yet, to preserve this, Taiwan has to find some mix of the approaches that I'd heard about: preparing for a war while avoiding it; talking to China without being coerced by it; drawing closer to the U.S. without being reduced to a chess piece on the board of a great game; tending to a young democracy without letting divisions weaken it; asserting a unique identity without becoming an independent country.
When I got back to my hotel, I had to descend four levels into the parking garage to enter—the remnant of a COVID protocol—and was reminded of something that Emily Wu had told me. Taiwan conducts annual air-raid drills. They were suspended for the past few years, owing to the pandemic, but resumed this summer. And now, Wu said, people take them more seriously. Underground parking garages were seen as ideal places to take shelter. I looked at the largely deserted expanse of parking spaces around me, a familiar sight now cast in a different light.
"What I want to achieve is to make Taiwan more resilient in economic and military terms," Tsai had told me. It's possible to look at this kind of gradual marshaling of society with trepidation. Coupled with the lack of a diplomatic opening to China, there's a momentum that risks pulling in the direction of conflict. But in Tsai's attitude, I sensed that resilience serves many purposes. A society that embeds digital literacy and emergency preparedness among its citizens is stronger, just as an economy that isn't overly reliant on the giant market next door will grow on a broader foundation. Even the effort to build a more progressive democracy comes into play, both in terms of investing domestic constituencies in the government and in forging friendships with democracies abroad.
In the end, Tsai's agenda is born of necessity. "When we're strong, resilient, trustworthy, and a good partner," Tsai said, "people will see our values. That makes us worthy of support."
The last question I asked President Tsai was whether she had ever wished to govern a normal country with normal problems. She appeared to consider the notion, but allowed herself to betray no emotion. "We may be unfortunate to have a big neighbor next door," she said. "But that makes us stronger."
This article appears in the December 2022 print edition with the headline "Taiwan Prepares to Be Invaded."
Taiwan along with Japan, Vietnam South Korea and the Philippines had all better stand firmly together or they'll all be governed from Beijing.
Gary Bargdill
Why is it Communist states constantly are looking backwards in history instead of forward to make a better world? Many people throughout the world have found living in a free world much more desirable than under a dictatorship. Smart people look to the future, evil orcs want to live in the past.
what will Joe do? he's already warned China. Anything more than the warning might impact his corrupt income. 10 percent to the big guy.
Tanks for Ukraine Have Shifted the Balance of Power in Europe
When the German and U.S. governments finally agreed this week to supply some of their most formidable battle tanks to Ukraine, the balance of power within Europe perceptibly shifted. For months, President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, fearing an escalation of conflict between the West and Russia, had stubbornly put off Ukrainian requests for the powerful, highly maneuverable vehicles, and the European states most directly vulnerable to Russian aggression—in Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and Central and Eastern Europe—had grown more and more frustrated with Washington and Berlin. Finally, the smaller countries had had enough. In an impressive show...
WASHINGTON STATE・ 1 DAY AGO
How Joe Biden Wins Again
The year after a midterm election is presidential purgatory. Congressional investigators from the opposing party devote themselves to flaying the incumbent. Stripped of any possibility of grand legislative accomplishments, presidents busy themselves with foreign policy and patiently wait for their domestic foes to overplay their hand.For Joe Biden, this is all intimately familiar. He experienced this discomfort as Barack Obama's vice president. And he walked away with a sense of how he might get through it differently himself, how he could profitably survive this awkward year—and leverage it as the basis for reelection.Back in 2009, Obama anointed Biden "The Sheriff."...
WASHINGTON STATE・ 9 DAYS AGO
What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life
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UTAH STATE・ 9 DAYS AGO
Photo of Putin in High-Heel Shoes Sparks Wild Conspiracy Theory
Vladimir Putin, who is believed to be about 5 feet 7 inches, was photographed with students of Lomonosov Moscow State University on Students' Day on Wednesday.
Helicopter Used To Transport Putin, Top Officials Crash Lands in Moscow
The Mil Mi-8 helicopter hit the ground at Vnukovo airport with its blades and tail, Russian media reported.
Ingram Atkinson
Scientists in China Create World's First Human-Monkey Hybrid in Laboratory, Sparking Ethical Debate
The world's first human-monkey hybrid has been successfully created in a laboratory, according to shocking research from Chinese scientists. This horrifying development occurred in 2021, after a team of researchers from the United States and Spain traveled to China in order to get around regulations that forbade this kind of research in their own nations.
Trump's 'Love Letters' To Kim Jong Un Reportedly Reveal North Korean Leader Was 'Ready To Work' With US On Denuclearization
Over a dozen letters exchanged between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have been published by the Korean-American Club. What Happened: Trump's self-described 'love letters' from Kim were retrieved by the authorities from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. In the letter, Kim reportedly expressed his willingness to discuss his isolated country's denuclearization with Trump while sidelining then-South Korean President Moon Jae In, reported Star And Stripes.
FLORIDA STATE・ 8 HOURS AGO
The Coming GOP Inquisition
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.House Republicans are readying their subpoenas.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic. The greatest nuclear threat we face is a Russian victory. Take detransitioners seriously. Who's afraid of a portrait of Muhammad? Probable ProbesAfter a few (er, 14) initial stumbles, House Republicans have elected a speaker and handed out committee gavels, and are now poised to deliver on the one promise to voters that they have...
Ukraine's battlefield success surprised Russia, but US troops who trained Ukrainians saw it coming, National Guard chief says
Many expected a Russian victory over Ukraine in "a matter of days or weeks," but not US National Guardsmen, Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson said this week.
What the Tech and Media Layoffs Are Really Telling Us About the Economy
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter by Derek Thompson about work, technology, and how to solve some of America's biggest problems. Sign up here to get it every week.Google's parent company, Alphabet, today announced that it plans to cut 12,000 jobs, joining a tech-and-media layoff list that already includes Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Snap, Twitter, and Warner Bros. Discovery. According to one estimate, roughly 130,000 people have been dismissed from their jobs at large tech and media companies in the past 12 months. That's roughly equivalent to the total number of people who worked at Apple before COVID hit.These...
The Flu-ification of COVID Policy Is Almost Complete
For all the legwork that public-health experts have done over the past few years to quash comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu, there sure seems to be a lot of effort nowadays to equate the two. In an advisory meeting convened earlier today, the FDA signaled its intention to start doling out COVID vaccines just like flu shots: once a year in autumn, for just about everyone, ad infinitum. Whatever the brand, primary-series shots and boosters (which might no longer be called "boosters") will guard against the same variants, making them interchangeable. Doses will no longer be counted numerically. "This...
The Fight Over California's Ancient Water
Photographs by Lenard SmithOn an early-December morning in California's Mojave Desert, the Geoscience Support Services geohydrologist Logan Wicks squats in the sand and fiddles with a broken white pipe. Here on a sandy road off Route 66, past miles of scrubby creosote and spiny mesquite, Wicks monitors the pumps and pipes of a promising desert extraction project.But he's not looking for oil or gas. Crouching under the shade of a 10-foot lemon tree, at the edge of a citrus orchard that spans hundreds of acres, Wicks is here for water.A fine stream bursts from the plastic pipe, forming a rainbow-crested...
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The Perfect Popcorn Movie
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The McKinley-Rosen Family
FFF Advocate:
Katie McKinley-Rosen
Place of Residence:
Survivor:
2-years-old, 2011
<< Back to Family Stories
Christopher McKinley-Rosen
Christopher had a sudden onset of influenza B that caused a brain injury.
Christopher's Flu Illness
Christopher was a playful two-year-old who had a kind heart. If there was love or affection to be had you could bet that he would be first in line to give and receive. He had an innate sense of who needed a hug or a friendly smile. Frequently, his parents would be told about how he comforted a new friend at daycare. He also had a love for the outdoors and for animals.
On February 28, 2011, Christopher appeared to be quieter and less active than normal. His usual furious appetite was missing and his smiley demeanor absent. He seemed uncomfortable but did not have any outward signs of being terribly sick. His parents put him to bed early and agreed that his stomach must have been bothering him. Christopher's mother woke up around 1:00 a.m. with uneasiness and a desire to check on him. She decided to sleep on his floor for the rest of the night.
Flu Hospitalization
Around 3:00 a.m. she was awoken to Christopher having a seizure. He had never seized before. His mother called 911 and he was rushed to Reston Hospital. There, his parents found out that he had suffered a sudden onset of Influenza B, which caused him to spike a very high fever and have a seizure. That night Christopher seized for 75 minutes straight. The hospital staff could not get an IV into his arm so they had to place an intraosseous infusion (IO) into his shin. He was intubated and prepared for transfer to INOVA Fairfax Hospital PICU. Christopher showed no sign of alertness throughout this ordeal. His eyes were shut and his body lifeless.
After 24 hours, the doctors removed him from the ventilator and after 48 hours they transferred him to the general ward of the hospital. However, Christopher still showed no signs of waking up. Upon his mother's insistence, an infectious disease doctor examined Christopher. This doctor was able to diagnose him with Influenza B and ordered an immediate MRI. Christopher was completely unresponsive to sound or touch. Upon review of the MRI, the neurologist advised his parents that Christopher had suffered a rare side effect of the flu – viral encephalitis. The flu and viral encephalitis had given Christopher a brain injury.
Christopher lost the ability to sit, crawl, walk and run. He lost the ability to eat and drink. He lost his ability to speak. The injury had also taken his sight and possibly impaired his hearing. After a few more days at Fairfax Hospital, Christopher was transferred to Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) for Pediatric brain and spinal cord injuries. After three months in KKI, Christopher was discharged to his parents' care in Northern Virginia. He has continued with his rehabilitation through private occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy.
Flu Recovery
Christopher has learned how to sit, crawl and walk again. His parents took his feeding tube out in July 2012 when he finally learned how to drink and eat solid food again. His vision seems to be miraculously improving, but he still has some issues with depth perception. His affectionate nature and love have returned. Although he has not spoken a word again since the injury, his mother remains optimistic that she will hear him call her "Mommy" again soon.
The Importance of Two Doses of Flu Vaccine For Children
Christopher received the first of two flu shots in November 2010. But in December he got pneumonia and his parents were told that he could not get vaccinated with his second dose until his pneumonia cleared. Time got away from his parents and they never brought him in for the second shot in the series. Now, every year, Christopher and his parents get vaccinated against the flu.


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by Patricia Jordan on October 24, 2015
Alfred Mehran Nasseri
Born in 1942, Mehran Karimi Nasseri (Sir Alfred) is an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport from 26 August 1988 until July 2006, when he was hospitalized for an ailment.
His 2004 autobiography, "The Terminal Man," was the inspiration for "The Terminal," a film starring Tom Hanks about Victor Novarski, a man who arrives in New York City from a politically unstable Eastern European country. Due to collapse of the government, Novarski's identification papers are no longer valid, and he is forced to remain in John F. Kennedy International Airport as a man without a country.
Ironically, Alfred remained stranded at Charles de Gaulle when "The Terminal" was released in 2004.
Alfred claims he was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah. After a long battle involving applications with several countries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees awarded him refugee status in Belgium.
Having claimed to have one British parent, although he produced no evidence to support this, Alfred decided to settle in the United Kingdom in 1986, but en route there in 1988, his papers were lost. Despite this setback, he boarded the plane for London but was promptly returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration officials.
Alfred was initially arrested by French authorities and released as his entry to the airport was legal and he had no country of origin to be returned to. He began his 18-year residency at Terminal One in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget later took on his case. In 1992, a French court ruled that having entered the country legally he could not be expelled from the airport but it could not grant him permission to enter France. Attempts were made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but Belgian authorities would only do so if Alfred presented himself in person.
Under Belgian law a refugee who voluntarily leaves a country that has accepted him cannot return. In 1995, Belgian authorities granted permission for Alfred to return, but only if he agreed to live in Belgium under supervision of a social worker. He refused on the grounds of wanting to enter the United Kingdom, as originally intended.
Alfred spent his time reading, writing in his diary and studying economics during his 18-year residency at Terminal One in the airport. He received food from airport employees.
His stay at the airport ended in July 2006 when he was hospitalized and his sitting place in the airport was dismantled. Alfred left the hospital in January 2007, and was cared for by the airport's branch of the French Red Cross. He was lodged for a few weeks in a hotel close to the airport. On March 6, 2007, was Alfred transferred to an Emmaus charity reception centre in Paris's 20th arrondissement.
Today, he lives in Paris.
Tags: Alfred Mehran Nasseri, Catherine Zeta-Jones, CDG, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, Steven Spielberg, The Terminal, Tom Hanks, UN High Commission
From: Remarkable People, Strange & True
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McDonald County Junior High Splits Pair Of Matches by RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS | September 13, 2018 at 5:00 a.m.
The McDonald County junior high volleyball team split a pair of matches on Sept. 8 at Pineville Junior High School to open the 2018 season.
McDonald County claimed a 25-19, 25-15 decision over Cassville but fell to Seneca, 21-25, 16-25.
The Lady Mustang B team defeated both Cassville and Seneca. Scores were not available.


After 30 years of change, policy makers increasingly recognise that public health can be affected, for good or bad, by organisations not directly involved in the health sector, and that it is necessary to draw on and combine the strengths of the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector to promote public health. Although devolution of control is now recognised as a key principle of reform, there remain a number of important issues which, unless resolved, are likely to compromise the efficacy of local government as a key lever in the delivery of quality healthcare. This pamphlet comprises essays by key experts in the fields of local government and public healthcare provision. Their contributions engage with the debate on how to link up the health sector itself with the many organizations whose activities impact upon the delivery of public health.


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Sound is a significant part of the human experience. The ways that people create, distinguish and interpret sound can profoundly influence how they engage with, transform, and value their surroundings.
This exhibition focuses on sound and music in West Papua (the western half of the island of New Guinea), both in the past and present. It draws together objects, sounds and birds collected by Alexander F. R. Wollaston in the early years of the twentieth century. There are also personal items such as a bird of paradise feather headdress and ukulele, on loan to the Museum from The Lani Singers, a West Papuan group living in exile in the UK who use music to draw attention to their struggle for independence from Indonesia.
The exhibition includes two innovative 'sound posters' designed by a Cambridge-based company Novalia. The posters' conductive ink allows visitors to touch images and hear the music of The Lani Singers as well as the calls of various West Papuan birds.


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Home / NEWS / Assassination Attempt : Dr. Kayode Fayemi Escape Death
Assassination Attempt : Dr. Kayode Fayemi Escape Death
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Barr. Opeyemi Bamidele, and five other persons were shot on Friday in Ado-Ekiti at a reception for the candidate of the party, Dr Kayode Fayemi.
The reception which held at the APC secretariat in the Ekiti capital had attracted a large crowd of party supporters.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Fayemi and a former Minister of Works, Dayo Adeyeye, were descending the stairs case at the secretariat when a policeman was said to have suddenly shot into the air to scare the surging crowd.
Opeyemi Bamidele and five other people were hit by bullets.
Bamidele was struck in the belly.
The APC last night gave the names of the other victims as Olabode Joshua, Olanrewaju Gbenga, Adebayo Ogunjemilehin, Ogunmodede Oluwole and Alex Adeleye, and alleged that the real target was Fayemi himself.
Governor Ayodele Fayose said the attack was self-induced.
His spokesman, Lere Olayinka, said the bullet that hit Bamidele and others was "fired by one of the armed mobile policemen who accompanied Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State."
The wounded people were rushed to the hospital for treatment.
The suspected policeman was overpowered and disarmed by angry party members who also gave him the beating of his life.
He was saved from possible death by his colleagues.
The APC spokesperson in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement described the incident as "a clear case of assassination attempt.''
He claimed that the gunman had aimed his gun at Fayemi and missed, with the bullet hitting Bamidele and the other victim.
He also claimed that the policeman was fake and an assassin.
But the police spokesman in the state, Caleb Chukwuemeka, said the command was still awaiting the report of the incident from its officers deployed to provide security at the reception
Assassination Attempt : Dr. Kayode Fayemi Escape Death Reviewed by NATIONAL CRIMEWATCH NEWS on 01:13 Rating: 5


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El abejaruco pechiazul (Merops variegatus) es una especie de ave coraciforme de la familia Meropidae que vive en África.

Distribución
Se distribuye principalmente por África Central y las regiones montañosas del este de África. Se puede encontrar en los siguientes países: Angola, Burundi, Camerún, República Centroafricana, República del Congo, República Democrática del Congo, Guinea Ecuatorial, Eritrea, Etiopía, Gabón, Kenia, Nigeria, Ruanda, Sudán, Tanzania, Uganda y Zambia.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Variegatus
Aves de África