NPR News: 12-04-2023 7AM EST
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Day: December 4, 2023
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<p class=”text-body text-muted small”>SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket (pictured) launched South Korea’s first military reconnaissance satellite on 1 December. The satellite is expected to strengthen the RoK Armed Forces’ early warning capabilities against potential North Korean threats. (SpaceX)</p>
<p>South Korea has launched its first military reconnaissance satellite using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.</p>
<p>The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the reconnaissance satellite was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 1 December, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced on 2 December.</p>
<p>The satellite separated from the Falcon 9 after about 14 minutes of the launch, and made its first communication with an “overseas” ground control station after about 78 minutes, confirming that it had been placed in orbit in “good condition”, the MND said.</p>
<p>Once the Republic of Korea (RoK) Armed Forces complete in-orbit testing, the satellite will start conducting surveillance and reconnaissance operations, the MND added.</p>
<p>The reconnaissance satellite has been developed and launched as part of a programme called Project 425, which aims to launch four more reconnaissance satellites by 2025. The MND contracted SpaceX in April 2022 to launch these satellites.</p>
<p>According to <em>Janes</em> data, Project 425 is valued at about KRW1 trillion (USD770.8 million), and will involve development and production of satellites with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical infrared capabilities, enabling the generation of high-resolution remote sensing imagery. These satellites are being developed by the MND in collaboration with Korea Aerospace Industries, Hanwha Systems, and Thales.</p>
Israel ordered people out of swathes of the main southern city in the Gaza Strip on Monday as it pressed its ground campaign deep into the south, sending desperate residents fleeing even as bombs fell on areas still described as safe.
Israel’s military posted a map on X on Monday morning with around a quarter of the city of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that must be evacuated at once. Three arrows pointed south and west, telling people to head further towards the Mediterranean sea and the Egyptian border.
Many of those taking flight were already displaced from other areas, many sleeping rough under makeshift shelters with their few remaining belongings in plastic bags.
Abu Mohammed told Reuters it was now the third time he had been forced to flee since abandoning his home in Gaza City in the north.
“Last night Israeli tanks shelled from the east, and the north, and the west too from (naval ships in) the direction of the sea, rings of fire around us, and the house kept shaking and covered in red light from the explosions, causing panic and horror for the adults and the children alike,” he said. “Why did they eject us from our homes in Gaza (City) if they planned to kill us here?”
At a home in Khan Younis that was struck overnight, flames licked the collapsed masonry and grey smoke billowed out from the rubble. A child’s stuffed toy of a sheep lay in a pile of dust. Boys were picking through the wreckage with bare hands.
Next door, Nesrine Abdelmoty stood amid damaged furniture in the rented room where she lives with her divorced daughter and two-year-old baby.
“We were sleeping at 5:00 am when we felt things collapse, everything went upside down,” she told Reuters. “They told (people) to move from the north to Khan Younis, since the south is safer. And now, they’ve bombed Khan Younis. Even Khan Younis is not safe now, and even if we move to Rafah, Rafah is not safe as well. Where do they want us to go?
As many as 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes in an Israeli bombing campaign that has reduced much of the crowded coastal strip to a desolate wasteland. Medical officials in the enclave say bombing has killed more than 15,500 people, with thousands more missing and feared buried in rubble.
Israel launched its assault to annihilate Gaza’s ruling Hamas Islamists in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by its gunmen, who killed 1,200 people and seized 240 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli forces largely captured the northern half of Gaza in November, and since a week-long truce collapsed on Friday they have swiftly pushed deep into the southern half. Tanks driving into Gaza from the border fence in the east along the road that divides Khan Younis from the city of Balah al-Deir further north have reached a flour mill half way to the Mediterranean coast, cutting off the main north-south road, residents say.
ISRAELI GROUND OPERATION ‘IN ALL OF THE GAZA STRIP’
“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s top military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, told reporters in Tel Aviv overnight. “The forces are coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them.”
It released footage of troops patrolling in tanks and on foot, in fields and in badly damaged urban areas, and firing from weapons, without specifying the location inside Gaza.
Government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the military had struck more than 400 targets over the weekend “including extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area” and had also killed Hamas militants and destroyed their infrastructure in Beit Lahiya in the north.
The United Nations humanitarian office said the southern areas ordered evacuated since the truce were home to more than 350,000 people before the war, not counting the hundreds of thousands now sheltering there from other areas.
Israel’s closest ally the United States has publicly called on Israel to do more to safeguard civilians in the southern part of the Gaza Strip than in last month’s campaign in the north, especially as there are so many people already homeless there.
Israel permitted additional humanitarian supplies to enter the enclave during the truce, but the United Nations says this was paltry compared to the territory’s vast humanitarian need, and has now been interrupted by the renewed fighting.
During the truce, Hamas released 105 of its hostages in return for 240 Palestinian detainees. But with most women, and children hostages now believed free, the truce collapsed over terms for releasing more, including Israeli men and soldiers. Israel says 136 hostages are still being held.
Through the use of disinformation, economic coercion, and overt and covert political actions, Russia has weakened democratic institutions in Latin America. Such were the findings of a late October report of nongovernmental organization U.S. Institute of Peace.
“This Russian machine is extremely pernicious and dangerous,” Jorge Serrano, a security expert and member of the advisory team of Peru’s Congressional Intelligence Commission, told Diálogo on November 17. “It has the capacity to cause damage and delegitimize the electoral process, which is one of the most valuable pillars of any democratic system.”
Since 2000, Moscow has been developing a complex ecosystem of disinformation and propaganda as part of its national security apparatus, the report indicates. This network experienced a marked increase during the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and with the invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.
The disinformation operations active in Latin America seek to counter the United States by portraying it in an evil light and supporting repressive regimes, the report says. With persistent narratives, Russian operations do not limit themselves to media platforms but include outreach efforts aimed at diverse audiences.
This alternative reality, darker than Moscow acknowledges, relies on Kremlin alliances in the region (along with those of like-minded nations such as Iran) to undermine U.S. influence, strengthen authoritarianism, and project a strong international network of Russian allies, the report indicates.
The Russian influence machine supports violent protests in U.S.-partner countries, while concealing executions, abuses, and human rights violations in Moscow-partner nations, it details. Although Russian electoral meddling was identified in Colombia, Mexico, and Bolivia, due to this distortion of the truth, the positive public perception of Russia in the region persisted, until the invasion and massacres in Ukraine.
“An active Russian network in the region is composed of companies with overlapping directorates, led by senior Russian intelligence officials, operating under the umbrella of the ‘Russian National Committee for the Promotion of Economic Trade with Latin American Countries,’ based in Santiago, Chile,” Serrano said. “Russia is increasingly aggressive.”
Influence for hire
On November 7, the U.S. State Department warned about the Kremlin’s attempts to spread disinformation through “influence for hire” firms to “launder its propaganda and disinformation” through local media, seeking organic integration with Latin American audiences.
The U.S. State Department identified three entities — the Social Design Agency, the Institute for Internet Development, and Structura — as responsible for coordinating these targeted information manipulation campaigns to promote the Russian lie, with specific focus on countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.
These “influence for hire” entities, the State Department reports, have the ability to overtly and covertly recruit local media and social media influencers to spread fake news. Experienced and technically capable companies exploit open information environments to promote twisted Russian propaganda.
The State Department also indicates that Moscow, through a network that includes state media, proxies, and influencers “plants” stories or amplifies and modifies popular or divisive discourses, intensifying content to further penetrate the Western information environment.
“These activities can include disseminating false content and amplifying information perceived as beneficial to Russian influence efforts or conspiracy theories,” the State Department statement says.
“Moscow seeks to disguise its propaganda, aware that U.S. and European intelligence services always identify their networks, platforms, contacts, and the disinformation web they weave in Latin America and around the world,” Serrano said. “If this Russian evil machine is not stopped it will become more aggressive and destructive.”
New Resistance
A U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center Special Report highlighted the case of New Resistance as an example of information manipulation and dissemination of anti-democratic and authoritarian ideologies worldwide, orchestrated by the Kremlin.
New Resistance, a neo-fascist quasi-paramilitary organization operating in the Americas and Europe, has deep connections to entities and individuals within the Russian disinformation and propaganda ecosystem. According to the mid-October report, it supports the neo-fascist ideologies of Russia’s Aleksandr Dugin, subject to U.S. sanctions and the main promoter of a Russian-led Eurasian imperialist anti-Western movement.
The Brazilian chapter of New Resistance (Nova Resistência) is active and works to spread malign influence in Latin America, co-sponsors events with Dugin, where high-level Russian officials participate and organizes “academic” seminars and training courses on its YouTube channel and website with local and international professors, historians, and philosophers, the State Department report indicates.
Regionally, Nova Resistência plays a central role in creating like-minded groups, “nationalist and revolutionary organizations” throughout the Latin American region, the report states. Its efforts are not limited to political and philosophical organizing, but also extend to supporting paramilitary activities.
In addition to open propaganda and disinformation in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Nova Resistência is involved in efforts to mobilize Brazilians to fight on Russia’s side in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “This is a tangible case for denouncing Russia before international bodies,” Serrano said.
Confronting the Russian machine
To counter Russian influence in Latin America, it is critical to prioritize the creation of a baseline interagency assessment and mapping of Russian information operations in the region to understand Russia’s strategic objectives and operations more fully, the U.S. Institute of Peace report says.
“It is imperative that democratic governments and countries disseminate these reports to the population,” Serrano said. “Every nation must denounce Russia’s operational tactics, urge its security forces and cyberwarfare centers to prepare for and confront Moscow’s machine and work together to establish a unified bloc against this structure of disinformation and lies.”