“Unfortunately for Ivanishvili, it’s unlikely Trump will fall for his fabrications” — Washington Examiner

Technology

Trump is not Ivanishvili’s friend

The US-based outlet Washington Examiner has published an article explaining why Donald Trump, contrary to the expectations of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party and the de facto ruler of Georgia, is unlikely to become an ally of the ruling party and may even oppose it.

Among other arguments, the article’s author, Tom Rogan, highlights the stance of Mikheil Kavelashvili, the president elected with the backing of the ruling party, towards the United States. According to Rogan, the fact that Georgian Dream is neither a friend of America nor of Trump is evidenced by Kavelashvili’s harsh anti-American rhetoric and other actions by the party.

“Corrupt elite acting against ordinary people” – What Washington Examiner says about Georgian Dream

In response to the violence it is inflicting upon its own people, the Biden administration has suspended its strategic engagement with the government in Tbilisi. Georgian Dream is arrogantly betting, however, that Trump will ignore their brutality and corruption.

The party wants him to ignore its theft of state resources, its betrayal of the Georgian constitution, and its attacks on innocent men and women. Georgian Dream is also keen that Trump not notice its supplication to Russia, its prime minister’s attendance at a funeral for a top Hamas leader, and its support for Chinese strategic interests.

This latter concern has led to the government signing a strategic partnership agreement with Beijing and. seemingly unqualified support for Chinese security, technological, and political interests.

Instead, Georgian Dream hopes that Trump will adopt the same approach to it that he has adopted toward Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Namely, welcoming its rhetorical praise while ignoring its blatant betrayal of Trump and America’s better interests.

Unfortunately for Ivanishvili, Trump is unlikely to fall for its fiction. As in his first term sanctioning of the Nord Stream II energy pipeline, Trump has shown a willingness to target economic interests that undermine U.S. security and interests.

And Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream encapsulate the very thing that defines Trump’s political identity: a corrupt elite acting against the interests of the common man and women without any sense of guilt.

In turn, rather than laughing it up in anticipation of Trump’s arrival, Ivanishvili should be nervous about facing sanctions, including secondary sanctions, on his interests. The Georgian Dream government should fear the same.

The key point here is that Georgian Dream is no friend of Trump or America. Don’t take my word for it, take President-designee Mikheil Kavelashvili’s.

A former soccer star, Kavelashvili has blamed the United States for the brutality his partners have inflicted on their fellow citizens. A vehement anti-American, in June, Kavelashvili attacked members of Congress, including prominent Republicans, as having an “unquenchable desire to destroy our country.”

And in stark contrast to the conciliatory rhetoric Trump has employed since his election triumph, Kavelashvili warned his political opponents that they would face dark consequences for testifying to the U.S. Congress on Georgia’s human rights crisis. As he put it, “After the elections, the Georgian people will give you all a proper place for this unprecedented betrayal!”

Trump should judge Georgian Dream for what it is. A group of corrupt thugs who want to smash Georgia’s constitution and people into obedience in order that they might better enrich themselves and better serve American adversaries in Moscow and Beijing.

A group, that is to say, which deserves Trump’s sanction-laden derision far more than it does any offer of friendship.

Chad’s online journalists decry ban ahead of December 29 elections

US & Canada

Yaounde —  Online media journalists in Chad are voicing dissatisfaction and frustration over officials’ refusal to lift a ban on the broadcasting of audiovisual content. The High Media and Audiovisual Authority, or HAMA, accuses journalists of reposting videos without the content producers’ permission but journalists say they are being silenced from reporting on critical election…

Apple’s complicity with Russian censorship: RSF calls on the tech giant to refuse compliance with regulators that do not respect international standards for the right to information

Technology

Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Apple suspended sales in Russia and removed propaganda apps like RT and Sputnik. But it now appears to be collaborating with Roskomnadzor by removing not only independent media outlets but also vital censorship-circumvention tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks) from its App Store.A study by GreatFire, a project which was originally created to monitor censorship in China, concluded on 25 September that nearly 100 VPN apps had been removed from Apple’s Russian App Store, including 25 at Roskomnadzor’s request in July 2024. RSF and 27 other international and Russian civil society organisations published an open letter condemning this decision.
When contacted by RSF, Apple defended its actions on the grounds of its obligation to comply with local laws, and it denied having proactively removed VPN apps from the App Store.
“Failure to comply with lawful orders could mean that Apple would no longer be able to operate an App Store or distribute content in the country,” Apple’s representative said to RSF. “The United States government has encouraged companies to continue to make communications services available to the Russian people because democratic principles are best aided through the availability of these services.”
Apple’s compliance with arbitrary orders from an authoritarian state calls into question its public commitment to freedom of information, which is set out in “Our Commitment to Human Rights,” a declaration adopted in 2020. It also raises fears of a repetition of its actions in 2017 in China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, when the company blocked VPNs on Chinese iPhones, which had allowed Internet users, including many journalists and their sources, to protect themselves from surveillance and to connect to sites banned in China such as Facebook, Google and Wikipedia.
Despite Western sanctions on Russia, Apple continues to prosper there thanks to indirect imports of iPhones. In 2024, iPhone sales constituted 12% of the Russian smartphone market, more than in 2020, according to an article published this week by the Russian media outlet The Moscow Times, which is banned in Russia.

Washington farmers, first responders worry over looming ban on Chinese drones

Technology

Catch the full story on KING 5 at 6:30 and 11 p.m.

SEATTLE — A bipartisan bill passed by the House of Representatives could have far-reaching implications that impact public safety and small businesses that rely on the evolving technology.

Drones serve many purposes. The same drone a farmer uses to monitor his cattle can be used by law enforcement to secure a crime scene.

DJI drones are the reason for that accessibility.

The Chinese-manufactured unmanned aircraft has cornered the market on commercial drones in the United States. King County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Stanley said that’s because the drones offer a cheaper price with some of the best technology available.

“From our perspective, they are a superior product to anything else that’s out there that’s even semi-affordable,” said Stanley, the county’s air support and drone program supervisor.

The proposed legislation targets DJI specifically over national security concerns.

“The Chinese Communist Party is working to undermine American sovereignty by forcing Americans to rely and depend on unsecure communist technology,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said on the house floor in September. “Nowhere is this more evident than in the drone industry.”

The Countering CCP Drones Act calls for a ban on new DJI drones. Stefanik argued the U.S. needs to stop China’s “monopolistic control over the drone market”.

However, these are the same drones regularly used by local government agencies for inspecting infrastructure and surveying storm damage. Stanley said the use of drones has significantly changed policing. It replaces the need for a first responder to physically enter a dangerous situation.

A study shows as of 2020, DJI accounts for about 90% of drones used by public safety agencies in the U.S.

Security Concerns vs. Practical Impact

The DJI drones are accessible, but the question remains: At what cost? 

Cybersecurity expert Erik Moore said there’s good reason for Congress to consider banning new DJI drones.

“Chinese political parties really do have their control over Chinese corporations,” said Moore, a cybersecurity leadership professor at Seattle University.

DJI claimed it is unfairly singled out because it is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.

However, U.S. lawmakers fear espionage. They worry the company’s mass collection of data could be used to help Chinese surveillance efforts.

“It is true that DJI has significant security,” Moore said. “At the same time, they do have control over the device, and there is the potential for backchannels as the chips on the device could be rewritten for other purposes.”

The ban aims to boost reliance on U.S. drone manufacturers, including several in Western Washington. However, higher manufacturing costs make it difficult for American companies to compete with DJI’s pricing.

“I wasn’t looking to go spend 20,000 or more on a drone system,” said Scott Luckie, a farmer for Luckie Farms in Lake Stevens. “For a couple hundred bucks I had something that worked really, really well.”

Luckie Farms relies on these affordable drones for daily operations.

“Time is money,” Luckie said. “If you take away the technology that they’re just starting to get into use, the profit margin is going to shrink again.”

His farm uses drones to count cattle, check fence lines, and monitor floodgates.

Many in the agricultural industry rely on drones to spray crops with chemicals or seeds with precision.

The King County Sheriff’s Office, which has received $600,000 in grants to fund its drone program, estimates switching to American-made drones would increase costs by up to 50%. Ultimately those costs would fall on taxpayers.

“If the abilities and capabilities of the drones take four or five steps backwards and the price goes up, that’s terrible for the American people, let alone our local community members here,” Stanley said.

Looking ahead

Congress recently passed a defense bill giving DJI one year to prove their drones don’t pose a national security risk before facing a potential ban.

The defense bill that passed last week would ban new Chinese drones from DJI and Autel Robotics should a review find them to pose an “unacceptable” risk to U.S. national security.

“There’s not a government user that doesn’t welcome a blossoming of technology in the United States,” Stanley said. “We would love that. But so far we aren’t there.”

Moore believes U.S. companies will become more competitive if Chinese drones are banned. He predicts that robotics in the next 10 years will be as transformational if not more than smartphones were in the last couple of decades.

“We want to make sure especially that the U.S. interests’ innovation and security is a big part of how we guide that forward,” Moore said.

For now, local agencies and businesses are watching closely as this technology debate unfolds.