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Another earthquake has struck near South Carolina’s capital city
By MEG KINNARD – Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Yet another earthquake has struck near South Carolina’s capital city, the ninth in a series of rumblings that have caused geologists to wonder how long the convulsions might last.
Early Wednesday, a 2.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Elgin, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Columbia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was measured at a depth of 0.5 kilometers, officials said.
That area, a community of fewer than 2,000 residents near the border of Richland and Kershaw counties, has become the epicenter of a spate of recent seismic activity, starting with a 3.3-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 27.That quake clattered glass windows and doors in their frames, sounding like a heavy piece of construction equipment or concrete truck rumbling down the road.
Since then, a total of eight more earthquakes have been recorded nearby, ranging from 1.7 to Wednesday’s 2.6 quake. No injuries or damage have been reported.
According to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, the state typically averages up to 20 quakes each year. Clusters often happen, like six small earthquakes in just more than a week last year near Jenkinsville, about 38 miles (61 kilometers) west of the most recent group of tremors.
Earthquakes are nothing new to South Carolina, although most tend to happen closer to the coast. According to emergency management officials, about 70% of South Carolina earthquakes are located in the Middleton Place-Summerville Seismic Zone, about 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) northwest of Charleston.
In 1886, that historic coastal city was home to the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the southeastern United States, according to seismic officials. The quake, thought to have had a magnitude of at least 7, left dozens of people dead and destroyed hundreds of buildings.
That event was preceded by a series of smaller tremors over several days, although it was not known that the foreshocks were necessarily leading up to something more catastrophic until after the major quake.null
Frustratingly, there’s no way to know if smaller quakes are foreshadowing something more dire, according to Steven Jaume, a College of Charleston geology professor who characterized the foreshocks ahead of Charleston’s 1886 disaster as “rare.”
“You can’t see it coming,” Jaume told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “There isn’t anything obvious moving or changing that you can put your finger on that you can say, ‘This is leading to this.’”
Typically, Jaume said that the recent quakes near Elgin — which lies along a large fault system that extends from Georgia through the Carolinas and into Virginia — would be characterized as aftershocks of the Dec. 27 event, since the subsequent quakes have all been smaller than the first.
But the fact that the events keep popping up more than a week after the initial one, Jaume said, has caused consternation among the experts who study these events.
“They’re not dying away the way we would expect them to,” Jaume said. “What does that mean? I don’t know.”
This past week the Israeli security forces carried out counterterrorism activities throughout Judea and Samaria. During activities in the Jenin refugee camp Palestinians opened fire on the forces, who returned fire, killing two Palestinians, one a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist operative. Another PIJ operative was mortally wounded. A Palestinian was killed while throwing Molotov cocktails. Palestinians in east Jerusalem rioted, attacking Israeli police forces.
In view of the decision by Palestinian terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails to go on a hunger strike to protest “recent events,” March 1, 2022 was declared a “day of rage.” The Palestinian public was asked to demonstrate and to confront Israeli security forces at the traditional friction points. Hamas called for the day of rage to be turned into an intifada.
The Israeli defense minister signed an order for the seizure of tens of thousands of dollars worth digital currency. The currency was held in 12 digital accounts of businesses supporting the al-Mutahidun money-changing company, owned by the Shamlakh family in the Gaza Strip. The funds were to be transferred to Hamas, notably to finance its military terrorist wing. According to the Israeli defense ministry, it was the third time Israel prevented digital funds from being transferred to Hamas.
Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) figures have almost completely abstained from publicly relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and have not taken a position on the events, despite the extensive media coverage. When the invasion began, the PA foreign ministry issued an announcement warning Israel not to exploit the international situation to “escalate its activities against the Palestinian people.” PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announced they would do everything possible to rescue the Palestinians currently found in Ukraine. Musa Abu Marzouq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, exploited the events to criticize the United States. Commentaries in the Hamas-affiliated media outlets reflect their confusion and embarrassment in dealing with the events. Some are pro-Putin, some are anti-Putin and some praise Ukrainian President Zelensky.
French Prime Minister Jean Castexsaid in a speech that Jerusalem was the eternal capital of the Jewish people, earning him a series of condemnations from Hamas and the PIJ.
A Hamas delegation visited Lebanon and met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Coronavirus infection: In Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip the number of active coronavirus cases continues to decline.
Recently, Strategic Command (STRATCOM) chief Adm. Charles Richard warned the US Congress that China is on track to surpass the US in land-based strategic nuclear forces unless the US invests extensively in modernizing its land-based long-range missile force.
“The discovery of three new ICBM missile fields in the last year demonstrates the value the PRC [People’s Republic of China] places on land-based forces,” Richard told the US House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Tuesday.
“If we choose not to continue investing in the land-based leg of our triad, the PRC will soon have a superior, modernized nuclear force with elevated day-to-day readiness.”
“In September 2021, I formally declared the strategic breakout of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the Secretary of Defense… The PRC continues the breathtaking expansion of its strategic and nuclear forces with opaque intentions as to their use,” Richard said.
These concerns are an echo of previous assertions made by higher echelons about China’s growing military development aimed at ending American air and naval superiority.
In September last year, at the Air Force Association conference, US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown Jr. said that by the year 2035, China would have eclipsed the United States’ air superiority, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
Further, according to a US report, China’s PLA Navy (PLAN) has been progressively modernizing since the mid-1990s and has now become “a potent military force” in coastal seas. According to the revised assessment, China’s navy has the most ships in the world, and its continued capability enhancement poses a danger to the US Navy’s control of the Western Pacific.
The report advises the US Congress should examine whether the Navy is adequately prepared to deal with a modernized PLAN.China’s DF-17 hypersonic missiles. (Image: China Military Online)
However, the conversation around Chinese land-based strategic nuclear force overtaking the US superiority is significant as it comes in the wake of Russia alerting its own strategic forces as a full-scale invasion of Ukraine is in process. There have been parallels drawn to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan that would potentially draw Japan and the US into the conflict.
Chinese Quest For Nuclear Superiority
Another illustration of such developing capabilities, according to Richard, was China’s recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile-launched hypersonic glide vehicle with fractional orbital bombardment.
In July last year, China conducted a world-first test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle that flew around the globe before slamming into a target. According to unidentified US intelligence officials, the hypersonic missile test also featured the launch of a separate missile from the ultra-high-speed vehicle.
According to Deputy-Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Sasha Baker, China is building its strategic nuclear weapon arsenal significantly faster than US Defense Department analysts expected and looks to be aiming to have at least 1,000 warheads deployed by 2030.
“This accelerated nuclear expansion may enable the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to field over 700 nuclear warheads by 2027,” Baker told the US House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Tuesday. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, greatly exceeding previous Department of Defense estimates.”
According to Baker, the continuous ambitious growth of China’s nuclear forces is becoming a more important component in how Defense Department policymakers perceive the US nuclear posture.
China had an active nuclear weapon stockpile in the low 200s in 2020, according to the US Department of Defense, but that figure is expected to rise over the next decade. Since then, China has advanced its nuclear development, with the US Defense Department estimating that by 2027, China might have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads and 1,000 by 2030, according to Arms Control Association.
China has also started construction on at least three solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo fields, which would eventually contain hundreds of new ICBM silos, Baker said, noting that this is a shift from Beijing’s previous nuclear deterrence posture. Further, an editorial in the state-run Global Times had stated that China’s nuclear deterrence buildup cannot be tied down by the US.
The tensions between the United States and China in the Indo-Pacific and China’s onward cruise to the Pacific have necessitated conversations about the global balance of power that many in America believe could be tilted in China’s favor by the year 2035.
Several Israeli military vehicles, including bulldozers, invaded Palestinian agricultural lands Thursday morning, east of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, fired many live rounds and bulldozed sections near the fence.
Media sources said four tanks and three armored bulldozed advanced dozens of meters into the agricultural lands before the soldiers fired many smoke bombs and rounds of live ammunition.
The soldiers bulldozed the lands close to the perimeter fence and installed sandhills before withdrawing. The invasion forced the farmers to leave their lands.
In March of last year, 2021, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza said Israeli mines were responsible for an explosion that led to the death of three fishermen.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses Western politicians of considering nuclear war, one week after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
“I would like to point out that it’s in the heads of Western politicians that the idea of a nuclear war is spinning constantly, and not in the heads of Russians,” Lavrov says in an interview with Russian and foreign media.
Two Palestinian terrorists based in Jenin were killed by IDF forces on Monday evening during a gun battle, sparking calls from Hamas for revenge and a “day of rage” throughout Palestinian Authority-controlled cities in Judea and Samaria and Gaza on Tuesday.
Arabic-language media identified the two slain men as Abdullah al-Hosari and Shadi Najm. A Hamas-affiliated outlet posted cellphone footage of al-Hosari firing at Israeli security forces on social media.
Najm was reportedly a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and al-Hosari was affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A third man also believed to be a PIJ operative, Abadeh al-‘Aul, was injured in the clash.
In a statement, Israeli Border Police said they had entered Jenin in order to arrest a terror suspect and were met with heavy gunfire from locals. The army used “riot dispersal means and live fire” to repel the mob, during which time al-Hosari and Najm were killed.
Some 150 Palestinians surrounded Israeli security forces as they departed Jenin, throwing Molotov cocktails, an improvised grenade and stones, the Border Police said.
Despite the clashes, the Israeli army successfully arrested Imad Abu Al-Hija, the son of a senior Hamas figure in Jenin, who is currently serving nine life sentences in an Israeli prison.
No Israeli security forces were injured in the clash.
In response to the slayings, Hamas demanded a “day of rage,” urging Palestinians to take to the streets and confront Israeli security forces at checkpoints.
But despite an eyewitness identifying another member of the terror group as the assailant, secretary-general of PIJ Ziad Al-Nakhala told Arabic-language media that Israel was the perpetrator.
“The Israeli Shin Bet is behind this incident. An attack on Adnan is like an attack on the Islamic Jihad movement,” Al-Nakhala said.
“We will respond according to this assumption.”
Abu Ali Express reported that another unnamed PIJ official said that the shooting “only serves the occupation,” dismissing the idea that it could have been triggered by internal rivalries within the terror group.
Across Western Europe, people are taking Russian president’s threats very seriously.
By Anchal Vohra, a columnist for Foreign Policy and a freelance TV correspondent and commentator on the Middle East based in Beirut.
MARCH 1, 2022, 8:50 AM
Russian President Vladimir Putin placed his nuclear forces on high alert on Sunday, citing NATO’s “aggressive” response to his invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Russia’s allied Belarusian government warned that Western sanctions on Russia would instigate the third world war. Europe’s governments made no official response to these threats.
But many European citizens—including those in Western Europe, far from the Ukrainian front—can no longer hide their anxieties. Putin is stoking their deepest fear: a continental war that could include nuclear weapons.
Nuno Gomes was busy shuffling espresso cups under a coffee machine and serving customers at a cafe in Brussels when explosions bellowing out of a TV broadcast of Ukraine’s invasion clashed with the cacophonous chatter of coffee drinkers. “It is unbelievable,” said the 21-year-old Portuguese barista, one of the millions of Europeans who believed war happened elsewhere, far from their backyard. “I am very scared of Putin,” he added. “If Europe sends soldiers to Ukraine to help the Ukrainians, then Putin will attack us. Belgium will be the first because it’s the center of Europe.”
Meanwhile, Kristof Cresens sipped a local beer at a pub in the beer town of Hoegaarden, Belgium. “I’m sorry my words are harsh, but he is an asshole,” Cresens said of the Russian president. He is furious at Russia’s attack on Kyiv but is uncertain of what Europe can do to stop it. He voiced a deep-seated fear of the Russian president, a fear that is holding back Europe from taking more assertive action. As a social worker and nurse at an institution for people with disabilities, Cresens oozed concern for Ukrainians, but like Gomes, he too is terrified of the man with a “big army” and among the largest stock of nuclear weapons. “I would maybe, ideally, want Europe to send troops to Ukraine to fight Russia, but if we do, then Putin might attack us,” Cresens said.
At a trattoria in Cologne, western Germany, Christina Wienand, Katja Lössl, and Philip Gutowski, friends, were about to order lunch. “He is a dangerous man. He has dangerous weapons,” Wienand said. “If Germany joins the war, it will become bigger and bigger, maybe a world war.” Gutowski flipped through a menu in a centrally heated restaurant as hail lashed the cobbled streets outside on a cold winter day. An uninterrupted power supply and centrally heated indoors are among Europe’s many comforts. “Ukrainian politicians are right to describe Germany’s support thus far as a joke, but it’s hard because we heavily rely on Russia for gas,” Gutowski said. “It is a difficult situation.”
Dozens of Europeans in several European nations reiterated the same sentiment when Foreign Policy asked them if Europe was doing enough to deter the Russian president and prevent Ukraine’s fall. Even though there was general acknowledgement of Ukraine’s relatively smaller army being unable to push back Russia’s massive military enterprise, no one advocated deploying their own troops against Russia. They backed sanctions, but not everyone is ready to pay more for an alternative source of gas at higher rates. Anger against Putin in Europe is palpable—but so is fear.
Most insist that Europe must not provoke a nuclear-armed Putin. “Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history,” Putin said in a televised address a day before Russian military columns rolled down the streets of Ukraine and airstrikes struck Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “Even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states,” he added.
Nearly everyone Foreign Policy spoke with described Putin as a dangerous man with nukes aimed at Europe. They see him as someone insane enough to destroy their cities and way of life at a moment’s notice. They would like to help Ukraine, but their top priority is ensuring war does not come home.
According to a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center, 78 percent of Europeans had no confidence in Putin’s leadership. But it wasn’t until last week’s invasion that Western Europeans thought of him as a direct security threat. Russia seems to have now replaced the Islamic State as the greatest threat in the hearts and minds of Europeans.
As Putin unflinchingly wields Russia’s nuclear threat, the Europeans that Foreign Policy spoke with were not in favor of their military alliance doing the same. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian very cautiously reminded Russia that, “the Atlantic alliance [NATO] is also a nuclear alliance,” as it includes the nuclear-armed states of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Estimates suggest that Russia has about 6,000 nuclear weapons while the United States has about 5,500.
Experts believe Russia is aware of Europe’s aversion to armed conflict in general and disdain toward the use of nuclear weapons in particular. They say Russia’s threat accomplished its goal of scaring Europeans. Russia’s nuclear might is the biggest reason the United States and its European allies have ruled out deploying boots on the ground. Desperate to save his people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed, in vain, for immediate entry to NATO, which would oblige the alliance to come to Ukraine’s defense. “I’ve asked 27 leaders of Europe if Ukraine will be in NATO. I’ve asked them directly. All are afraid and did not respond,” he said in a video released over the weekend. “We were left by ourselves. Who is ready to go to war for us?”
The United States and its European allies insist they are determined to do everything short of sending troops. Not only has the West come together to impose a ban on Russia using the SWIFT payment system but also a ban on Russian aircraft using European airspace. Moreover, the European Union said it would finance the provision of weapons needed to stop Russia to Ukraine.
After Britain’s shoulder-fired missiles and U.S.-made Javelin anti-tank, guided missiles were spotted on the battlefield and reported to have aided Ukraine, Germany’s chancellor reversed the country’s position of not sending weapons to a conflict zone and decided to supply 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine. The Dutch have announced it will supply 50 Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of rockets, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington will provide $350 million in additional military equipment to bolster Ukraine’s defense.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that Ukrainian soldiers and fighters in Kyiv have had success in holding onto the capital despite massive Russian bombardments and ground infiltration. Ukrainians have displayed a will to fight and, so long as they continue to receive arms from the West, they might have a chance to at least bleed Russia enough to encourage Putin to rethink his invasion.
“Before the full-scale Russian attack began, I would have said (and did) that no amount of Western weapon assistance could be enough to enable Ukraine to defeat the better-equipped Russian force,” said Olga Oliker, the International Crisis Group’s program director for Europe and Central Asia. “I am no longer certain that is true, but I’m not convinced yet that it is not. Russia has not put all of its capabilities forward as yet. But the Ukrainians have fought bravely and impressively while Russian forces have not fought as well as I expected. Western states can and should continue to supply Ukraine with both lethal and nonlethal capabilities.”
U.S. and European sanctions are no match for Russia’s military might and are unlikely to dissuade Putin and his cohorts from withdrawing from eastern Ukraine. Aiding Ukrainian fighters with weaponsm, by contrast, may halt Putin’s march into Kyiv—but it will certainly heighten fears among Europeans of a nuclear response.
Anchal Vohra is a columnist for Foreign Policy and a freelance TV correspondent and commentator on the Middle East based in Beirut. Twitter: @anchalvohra
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