🇺🇸⚡️🇨🇳 A War With China Would Reach Deep Into American Society

A major war in the Indo-Pacific is probably more likely now than at any time since the Second World War.

The United States has vital strategic interests at stake. A successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan would punch a hole in the U.S. and allied chain of defenses in the region, seriously undermining America’s strategic position in the Western Pacific, and would probably cut off U.S. access to world-leading semiconductors and other critical components manufactured in Taiwan. As president, Joe Biden has stated repeatedly that he would defend Taiwan.

But leaders in Washington also need to avoid stumbling carelessly into a war with China because it would be unlike anything ever faced by Americans. U.S. citizens have grown accustomed to sending their military off to fight far from home. But China is a different kind of foe — a military, economic and technological power capable of making a war felt in the American homeland.

📎 The New York Times

🇲🇩❌🏳️‍🌈 The court refused the lesbian couple's demand to have their marriage recognised.

They vowed to take Moldova to court adding that "there are more couple like them" and that they were denied their "rights".

Sources say that one of the women, Angelica Frolov, is tied through NGOs with PAS having played a role in the electoral campaigns of PAS and that this lawsuit might be a way of PAS paying its debts.

🇷🇴⚖️🇬🇧BUCHAREST, March 3 (Reuters) - The European Union's top court will hear a case brought by a British-Romanian transgender man against Romanian authorities over their refusal to recognize his gender identity, Romanian LGBTQ rights organisation ACCEPT said on Friday.

The case, which raises questions about free movement and citizenship rights under EU law, was first raised in a Romanian court in 2021 and has now been referred to the European Union Court of Justice.

Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi moved to the United Kingdom in 2008 and obtained his British citizenship in 2016, which is also when he began his transition, said ACCEPT Romania, which is helping him with his case.

UK authorities gave him a gender recognition certificate while the country was still part of the European Union. In 2021, Romanian authorities refused to acknowledge his name and gender change, demanding he follow the lengthy national procedure.

"Arian's ability to travel freely in the EU, like any EU citizen, has been unjustifiably restricted, including his ability to visit family members in Romania, because his Romanian passport displays the wrong identity," ACCEPT said.

The organisation said the case could set a precedent for other transgender people whose gender recognition is not being acknowledged elsewhere in the EU, harming their ability to travel freely, reside, work, study or even vote across the EU.

"The Court will also have the opportunity to confirm that the rights that EU citizens lawfully acquired in the UK when it was still treated as a member state ... are portable when those citizens wish to exercise their free movement rights."

In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Romania violated the rights of two transgender people by refusing to recognise their identity because they had not undergone gender reassignment surgery.

Socially conservative Romania decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, decades later than other parts of the European Union, but bars marriage and civil partnerships for same sex couples.

A blanket ban on gender identity studies was struck down by Romania's Constitutional Court in 2020.

🇺🇸✝️ Researchers in America have found that the faster religious attendance falls in a state, the more “deaths of despair” rise. These include drug overdoses, alcohol-related illness and suicides

📎 The Economist

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Igor Morgulov's comments to the Global Times come amid accusations by the U.S. that Beijing was looking to give Moscow lethal aid to use against Ukraine.

📎 Newsweek

🇨🇳👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 U.S. shouldn't put its bets on China's demographics leading to near/medium-term decline.

📎 By Elbridge Colby

▪️ A declining working-age population generally portends slower economic growth, as observed in Japan and Europe over the past decade. But while demographic headwinds will eventually catch-up with China, internal migration should push the day of reckoning far into the future

▪️ Most of the growth in China’s effective labor force over the past 20 years has come from urbanization, with more than 270 million people leaving the countryside for employment opportunities in cities over this period.

▪️ Even after this massive influx 37.5% of China’s population (530 million people) still lived on farms at the end of 2021, roughly 2x the rural share of the population in the U.S. (17.1%) and OECD (18.8%).

▪️ At current trends, China’s urban population will grow by more than 215 million people by 2035, increasing the pool of available labor in these productive regions even as the overall population dips by roughly 20 million.

🚨🇺🇸 Norfolk Southern says it’s sending crews to clean up the large train derailment in Springfield, Ohio. Nearby residents ordered to shelter in place.

📎 Upward News

🇺🇸 Tonight, another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio. I’m in touch with local officials on the ground, federal inspectors are mobilizing, and my office is monitoring the situation.

Thank you to all the first responders who arrived on the scene quickly.

📎 Senator Sherrod Brown

🇺🇦🇩🇪 Rheinmetall is negotiating the construction of a tank factory on Ukrainian soil.

“Plant can be set up in Ukraine for around 200 million euros.”, said company boss Armin Papperger. Potentially it will be able to produce up to 400 Panther-type tanks annually.

📎 Speigel

🇨🇳🇵🇭 Chinese navy ship, militia vessels found 'slowly loitering' near disputed island, says Philippines

📎 MSN

🇹🇷🪖 Turkish Navy Drone Carrier „TCG Anadolu“ has been officially delivered to the Turkish Naval Forces Command.

Turkiye intends to deploy Bayraktar TB3 UCAVs along with the Bayraktar Kızılelma UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air System) on the ship.

📎 Aceu

⚡️🇮🇱 About 400,000 Israelis took part in protests against the government in various cities of Israel, including 200,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv.

📎 301 Military