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‘Disillusioned about China’, more Chinese aim for US via risky Darien Gap

Necocli, Colombia – Shortly after 8am, about a dozen Chinese migrants rush out the doors of Mansion del Darien, a rundown hotel a few blocks from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, and pile into three tuk-tuks waiting on the street. “We’re full of Chinese people every day,” said the receptionist, Gabriela Fernandez, scurrying past the front desk with a clipboard in hand. “All the time, big groups of them are arriving and leaving together. It’s been like this for months.” Behind her, signs explaining the hotel prices and policies are written in Mandarin. Pots of spicy instant noodles imported from China are for sale next to bottles of water. Payments via the Chinese social media app WeChat are accepted. “They move along in their own separate world,” Fernandez said. The group of middle-aged travellers, wearing hats and carrying tents and walking poles, are dressed for a trek. But not everything quite adds up. Many are wearing lightweight Crocs footwear, and their small backpacks are wrapped in plastic bags. It is here in Necocli, a beach town near the border with Panama, that marks the starting point for crossing the Darien Gap, a region of dense and inhospitable jungle that has become a major migration route for those trying to reach the United States. In 2023, more than 500,000 migrants crossed the treacherous Darien, which is the only overland route from South to North America, according to data collected by the Panamanian government. Just over 25,000 of those migrants were Chinese, making them the fourth largest overall nationality and the largest outside of the Americas to making the crossing. “This is a new element that was not there in previous years,” said Giuseppe Loprete, head of mission in Panama for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN body that provides information for migrants crossing the Darien. “It’s a lot of people, and it’s a long way to come. For the smuggling networks, it’s big business.” Chinese migrants – unlike many of the other most common nationalities in the Darien, such as Venezuelans and Haitians – often take special “VIP” routes across the jungle that are led by guides working for the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug cartel, and are quicker and less strenuous for higher prices than the most basic routes. Through a combination of boat journeys, hikes and, in some cases, horseback rides either along the Caribbean or Pacific coast, they are able to make the crossing in a couple of days rather than the weeklong trip that cheaper routes usually take. Traffickers in Necocli told Al Jazeera that while the cheapest routes across the Darien cost about $350, the more direct routes along the Panamanian coast through towns such as Carreto and Coetupo and arriving at one of Panama’s migrant reception centres cost $850. A line of Chinese migrants waiting to depart on boats in Necocli [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera] But in some cases – with journeys to the island of San Andres, which is just a few hours by boat from Nicaragua – the price is as much as $5,000. It can bring in tens of millions of dollars per month for the cartel. After all that spending, the migrants must head north through the rest of Central America, contending with corruption, theft and violence as they make their way to the US-Mexico border. ‘Why we want to go to the United States’ During a two-day visit in Necocli, Al Jazeera observed dozens of Chinese migrants preparing for the journey, including engineers, teachers and computer programmers. Waiting on the beach to leave on a boat to Panama with a friend, Wu Xiaohua, 42, said he opted to take one of those quicker journeys because he is eager to arrive in the US and start work as soon as possible. Originally from Hunan province, Xiaohua moved to Shanghai to work as a taxi driver, but since the pandemic, life has been a struggle. “There are major problems in our country’s economy,” he said. ‘We have no choice but to survive. That’s why we want to go to the United States.” “Our requirements are very simple: We can afford medical treatment, have a place to live, our children can afford to go to school and our family can be safe.” One migrant, Huang, who asked to share only her surname, said she left Beijing two months ago after China’s strict COVID-19 lockdowns ended her employment as a masseuse, leaving her barely able to survive day to day. “I sold everything that I had,” Huang said. “We were treated like caged animals.” Chinese migrants are led in a group to begin the trek [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera] The huge spike in Chinese people making the journey across the Darien – a journey now so popular it is known in Mandarin as “zouxian”, or walking the line — has been driven by the Chinese government’s COVID-19 lockdowns, increasingly rigid rule and the recent flatlining of China’s once-imperious economy. “It’s down to political and economic uncertainties,” said Min Zhou, a professor of sociology and Asian-American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There has been a downturn in the Chinese economy. People have become unemployed, and there’s discontentment about the government’s tight policies.” Ai Weiwei, a dissident artist and activist who fled China in 2015 due to repression, told Al Jazeera that the phenomenon is a sign of declining trust in the government. “Normally in China, ordinary people are very reluctant to leave their homes,” he said. “This phenomenon of people going through the agony of climbing through the rainforest, dragging their children with them, is the first of its kind to be seen.” ‘Chinese migrants are particularly vulnerable’ More than 37,000 Chinese citizens were arrested for illegally crossing the southern border of the US in 2023, according to US Customs and Border Protection. That number is nearly 10 times the total in 2022 and  more than double that of the entire previous decade. The journey from China can take months of cross-continental travel

Canadian white supremacist who killed Muslim family gets life sentence

The judge in the case said Nathaniel Veltman’s attack represented an act of ‘terrorism’. A Canadian white supremacist who deliberately ran over four members of a Muslim family has been sentenced to life in prison for the murders. Nathaniel Veltman, 23, was convicted in November of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the attack that shocked Canada Salman Afzaal, 46; his wife, Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter Yumnah, 15; and Afzaal’s mother, Talat, 74, were killed. The couple’s nine-year-old son suffered serious injuries but survived. The family had been out for a walk near their home in the town of London, Ontario, at the time of the attack. The judge in the case said Veltman’s attack represented an act of terrorism, the first time that the term has been used to describe white nationalist violence. “I find that the offender’s actions constitute terrorist activity,” Judge Renee Pomerance of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice said at this sentencing on Thursday. The 2021 attack was the worst against Canadian Muslims since a man gunned down six members of a Quebec City mosque in 2017. Prosecutors noted Veltman had written a manifesto in which he outlined hatred of Islam and opposition to mass immigration and multiculturalism. Shortly after the assault, Veltman said, “I did it. I killed those people.” Veltman pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder. His defence, citing what it called Veltman’s mental challenges, said the actions amounted to a lesser charge of manslaughter. Adblock test (Why?)

Congress likely to punt government shutdown deadlines again, sources say

With roughly a week until Congress’ deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown, House and Senate leaders are seriously considering a short-term federal funding extension to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal. Four sources told Fox News Digital that the spending patch, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is increasingly likely to be congressional leaders’ near-term fix to avoid the negative impacts of a partial shutdown. A CR would give lawmakers more time to put together a spending deal for the next fiscal year without risking potentially furloughing thousands of government employees and pausing critical federal programs in the meantime. That deal is still being negotiated by Congressional leaders and appropriators. “Our speaker is doing his best, but I do think he has stopped saying, ‘This will be the last CR,’ because he sees that the Senate is almost impossible to negotiate with, with a deadline,” one GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital. “We really do need them to just stop assuming they can kick the can each and every time down the road, when all that does is build pressure on our side, on the House side with Republicans.” When asked if another CR was the likely move, the GOP lawmaker said, “unfortunately.” HOUSE GOP LEADERS JETTISON PROMISE TO VOTE ON 12 INDIVIDUAL SPENDING BILLS “I would say that that is one of their options. Like anything with Mike Johnson, they’re not going to make a decision early,” one senior GOP aide said. Under a plan negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., designed to avoid a single massive “omnibus” spending bill for fiscal year 2024, government funding deadlines were split into two halves – some departments’ funding expires on March 1, while others’ runs out on March 8.  If one or both deadlines comes without some kind of bipartisan deal on federal funding, including a CR, the government risks falling into a partial shutdown.  CONGRESS BARRELS TOWARD GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DEADLINES WITH LITTLE PROGRESS SO FAR Congress has so far passed three CRs to extend federal funding past the Sept. 30 fiscal year deadline, including twice since Johnson became speaker. GOP hardliners opposed each effort, arguing it was an extension of the previous Democrat-controlled Congress’ priorities. Indeed, House GOP support has been shaky each time – Johnson most recently passed a CR in January with support from 107 Republicans, and 106 voting against. He pledged in November that he was “done with short-term CRs.” Discussions of a fourth CR appear to be in the preliminary stages right now, but details are not immediately clear. Two senior House GOP aides told Fox News Digital that one possible plan is a short-term CR with a yearlong extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a federal government tool used to spy on communications of foreign nationals outside the U.S. with suspected terrorism links, without a warrant, even if the person on the other side is an American citizen. House GOP-led committees are currently working on reforming the program, which is set to expire in April if it is not renewed. Meanwhile, a source familiar with government funding discussions told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats are floating the possibility of a three-week CR. HOUSE GOP HEADS FOR SHOWDOWN AFTER CONSERVATIVES PROMISE REVENGE FOR BIPARTISAN SPENDING DEAL All sources stressed that these are early talks. Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s offices did not return requests for more information. Democrats and defense hawks are wary of pushing too long of an extension; under a deal struck by ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden to raise the debt limit last year, a CR extending into April would automatically trigger an 8% funding cut to non-defense discretionary spending – equal to roughly a 1% cut across the board. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in December that a full-year CR “would lock in outdated spending plans and devastating across-the-board cuts while locking all of us out of any kind of thoughtful decision-making process for our nation’s future.” Meanwhile, the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to Johnson on Wednesday calling on him to pass a one-year CR, arguing that the resulting spending cuts would be better than any deal he could put together with Schumer, D-N.Y. “If we are not going to secure significant policy changes or even keep spending below the caps adopted by bipartisan majorities less than one year ago, why would we proceed when we could instead pass a year-long funding resolution that would save Americans $100 billion in year one?” the group wrote.

Bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers touch down in Taiwan for surprise visit

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers touched down in Taiwan for an unannounced visit on Thursday. The group is the latest batch of officials to flout China’s demands that the U.S. cut ties with the self-governed island. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a major critic of China, led the delegation, which included four other members of Congress. “The United States, Democrats and Republicans, stands with Taiwan, for your freedom and for ours,” Gallagher said at a press conference during the visit. “For as Taiwan goes, so goes the world.” The group met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, who told them she hoped to see further interaction between U.S. and Taiwan officials. TAIWAN PROTESTS AFTER CHINESE COAST GUARD BOARDS TOURIST BOAT NEAR KINMEN ARCHIPELAGO “The Taiwan of today plays a crucial role in upholding global peace and democracy,” she said. “We will continue to advance our international partnerships and engage with the world.” The other members of the delegation are Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.; John Moolenaar, R-Mich.; Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.; and Seth Moulton, D-Mass. All those on the trip are members of the House Committee on Competition with China, which Gallagher chairs. The lawmakers’ offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital. China has long claimed ownership over Taiwan, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime has threatened to unite the island with the mainland by force. Previous visits by U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan were seen as validation of the island’s independence. China was outraged in August 2022 when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan. Tsai followed up the visit with a trip to the U.S. last year. CHINESE COAST GUARD BRIEFLY BOARDS TAIWANESE BOAT FOR ROUTE PLAN, CERTIFICATION AFTER NEW SECURITY CRACK DOWN The Chinese military responded to both incidents with weeks of live-fire drills surrounding Taiwan in an apparent simulation of an invasion. Gallagher’s group also met with Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te. It was the first meeting between him and U.S. lawmakers since he won the island’s presidential election in January. Lai will succeed Tsai in May.

Lara Trump unleashes on Nikki Haley amid RNC feud, refusal to drop out of GOP primary race

FIRST ON FOX: Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Trump and candidate for Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair, went off on presidential candidate Nikki Haley, blasting her vow to remain in the race no matter the outcome of Saturday’s South Carolina primary. In an interview with Fox News Digital at a campaign stop in North Charleston on Wednesday, Trump said Haley’s stubbornness “doesn’t make a lot of sense,” and that donors were the ones “obviously keeping her campaign alive.” Trump’s comments come just days after she received criticism from Haley for saying “every single penny” of RNC funds should go toward former President Trump’s re-election. “We don’t anoint kings in America,” Haley said. TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREDICTS ‘A– KICKING’ FOR HALEY IN SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY, BUT SHE SAYS ‘I REFUSE TO QUIT’ “At a certain point, you have to ask yourself when it’s obvious that Nikki Haley will not be the Republican nominee — there really is no path to that for her at this point — then why stay in a race? Why fight against the Republican nominee, the person who is leading the party?” Trump told Fox. She suggested the only plausible explanation was that Haley is banking on former President Trump’s legal woes hindering his presidential run, something she said would be the “least Democratic, least American thing” that could ultimately happen. “I will say that any person who is not standing up and fighting back in the face of that, calling it out for exactly what it is — election interference — should not be running for President of the United States,” Trump said.  BIDEN CAMPAIGN TROLLS TRUMP’S ‘WEAKEST OPERATION IN RECENT HISTORY’ AMID LAGGING CAMPAIGN CASH “So why she is still in this race I think is unknown to a lot of people. It’s time for Nikki to suspend her campaign and come on Team Trump and let’s head towards November collected and facing Joe Biden so that we can win the White House,” she added. When pressed on how former President Trump would handle a protracted primary race with Haley, Trump dismissed the notion her father-in-law “has anything to worry about.” “She’s about to likely lose in a very embarrassing way, her own home state of South Carolina,” she said. “I think Donald Trump has turned his focus to the actual person we should all be focusing on, which is Joe Biden. That is who we need to beat in November.”  “If she wants to stay in this race and drain people’s money and fight against him, that’s her own prerogative. But I think the American people are focused on what we need to do to take this country back in November,” she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to Haley’s campaign for comment. According to a Suffolk University/USA Today survey of South Carolina voters released Tuesday, Trump holds a commanding 63% support compared to Haley’s 35%. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Rubio warns Chinese cyberattack ‘will be 100 times worse’ than AT&T outage: ‘Your power, your water’

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio warned on social media that the AT&T outage affecting tens of thousands of Americans pales in comparison to what a potential China cyberattack would look like. “I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage,” the Florida Republican posted on X on Thursday. “But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion.” “And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank.” Rubio’s warning came as tens of thousands of AT&T customers reported outages on Thursday morning for their home phone, internet and mobile phone services, according to Downdetector. CHINESE HACKERS HAD ACCESS TO US INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ‘AT LEAST 5 YEARS’ BEFORE DISCOVERY The outages started popping up just before 3:30 a.m. ET, according to a graph shown on the website that tracks outages.  Most users, 54%, say they are having issues with mobile phone service. More than a third of customers reporting being affected say they have no signal at all, and 8% of users say their mobile internet is down. US ALARMED AS CHINA HACKS CRITICAL SYSTEMS: WHAT YOU CAN DO “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T told FOX Business in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.” More than 74,000 AT&T users reported outages to Downdetector as of 9:30 a.m. ET.   Earlier this month, FBI director Christopher Wray warned that China’s cyberattacks against the U.S. and its allies are reaching a “fever pitch.” “You might find your companies harassed and hacked, targeted by a web of corporate CCP proxies,” Wray told the leaders gathered in Germany. “You might also find PRC [People’s Republic of China] hackers lurking in your power stations, your phone companies and other infrastructure, poised to take them down when they decide you stepped too far out of line, and that hurting your civilian population suits the CCP.” “China-sponsored hackers pre-positioned for potential cyberattacks against U.S. oil and natural gas companies way back in 2011, but these days, it’s reached something closer to a fever pitch,” he continued. “What we’re seeing now is China’s increasing build-out of offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure, poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right.” Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report

Palestine: Transfer

People & Power investigates whether the permanent transfer of Palestinians from Gaza is Israel’s ultimate goal. Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced nearly two million Palestinians since October 2023. A majority of them are sheltering in the southernmost city of Rafah. Now, with the threat of an Israeli ground offensive on the area and calls by some Israeli politicians to permanently expel Palestinians from the Strip, fears are growing of yet another forced population transfer. An Israeli minister has even called the current war the “Gaza Nakba”, referring to the devastating forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948-1949. Meanwhile, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank say the Israeli army and illegal settlers are waging a less visible but equally dangerous shadow war there. People and Power delves into the history of Palestinian displacement and asks whether population transfer is Israel’s ultimate goal. Adblock test (Why?)

China to ICJ: Palestine has ‘inalienable right’ to armed resistance

NewsFeed Palestinian ‘use of force to resist oppression is an inalienable right’ and cannot be equated with terrorism. China used examples of international conventions to defend the Palestinian struggle for self-determination in its presentation to the UN’s top court. Published On 22 Feb 202422 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

The trials of Julian Assange: A death sentence for democracy

In June 2022, when Russia’s foreign ministry announced that it was considering “stringent measures” against United States media outlets in response to US restrictions on Russian media, the US Department of State huffily complained that the Kremlin was “engaged in a full assault on media freedom, access to information, and the truth”. This sort of hypocrisy was nothing new; after all, the world’s self-appointed greatest democracy has long made it clear that basic rights and freedoms are things that only its enemies must abide by. The shameless double standard enables the US to do stuff like make a ruckus over Cuba’s political prisoners while simultaneously operating an illegal US prison on occupied Cuban territory – or call out China for an alleged “spy balloon” while simultaneously spying on China and everyone else on the planet. And on Wednesday, February 21, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange completed one last legal attempt to avoid extradition to the US, the country’s own “full assault on media freedom, access to information, and the truth” was once again on full display. If extradited, the Australian-born Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on spying charges – which again is pretty rich coming from a nation with an extensive history of illegally spying on its own citizens. In reality, Assange’s only “crime” was to utilise WikiLeaks to expose the truth of US military crimes, as in the notorious “Collateral Murder” video that was released in 2010. The video footage, which dates from 2007, shows a massacre of a dozen people in Baghdad by upbeat helicopter-borne US military personnel, who did not find it necessary to conceal the extent to which they were getting off on the slaughter. Among the murdered Iraqis were two staffers for the Reuters news agency. Talk about assaults on media freedom. The US insists that, by publishing such content, Assange actively endangered the lives of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. But as I have pointed out before, it would seem that one surefire way to not endanger innocent lives in such places would be to refrain from blowing them up in the first place. To be sure, it is common knowledge that the US has killed a whole lot of civilians in a whole lot of countries, although the official narrative still maintains that all killing is ultimately done in the name of freedom, democracy, and other noble goals – rather than for sport or fun, as might be suggested by the “Collateral Murder” production. So why, then, the need for such over-the-top pretences to secrecy and the super-vilification of the person of Julian Assange? In the end, the US can’t afford to have its global do-gooder disguise too relentlessly or thoroughly challenged – since too much “access to information and the truth” would relieve the nation of its alibi for wreaking havoc across the world. Regardless of the final outcome, the protracted US war on Assange has already set a chilling precedent in terms of press freedom and other essential liberties. Indeed, the calculated physical and mental destruction of Assange is meant to deter other publishers and journalists from the crime of pursuing the truth, as the US has effectively undertaken to classify reality itself. To that end, pending his extradition to the US, Assange has been held for the past five years in Belmarsh prison in southeast London, where the British government has proved faithfully complicit in the protracted efforts to bring about his demise. Shortly after Assange’s arrest and incarceration in 2019, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer warned that the man’s life was at risk, and that he exhibited “all the symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture”. Melzer, who is now a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow, also remarked at the time that, “while the US Government prosecutes Mr. Assange for publishing information about serious human rights violations, including torture and murder, the officials responsible for these crimes continue to enjoy impunity.” Maybe Melzer should have been jailed, too? And as Assange’s extradition battle now comes to a close, it seems the US may at long last get to definitively kill the messenger – and not just metaphorically. As his wife Stella Assange recently told reporters, “If he’s extradited, he will die.” But Julian Assange’s persecution and torment also constitute a death sentence for any approximation of democracy and justice in the United States of America, a country whose constitution supposedly enshrines freedom of speech and the press. At any rate, injustice has already scored a major victory with the chronic underreporting in US corporate media of Assange’s trials, which National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has described as “the most important press freedom case in the world”. In other words, this should be major news for the news industry itself. But disappearing the truth is another way to kill it – and in that respect, Julian Assange is already dead. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)

Texas passes on $450 million summer lunch program for low-income families

The USDA estimates the families of 3.8 million children could have received $120 per child to cover summer lunches if the state participated in the new $2.5 billion program launching this summer. Texas is one of 15 states opting out.