标签： Oceania

A $10 to $20 million proposal to equip U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with low-voltage electric shock gloves has ignited fierce bipartisan and public criticism, with detractors warning the new less-lethal tool will exacerbate already documented patterns of excessive force and abuse against migrant populations. The device in question, formally called the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (G.L.O.V.E.), is manufactured by Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies, which markets its products as cutting-edge non-lethal solutions designed to protect law enforcement personnel in the line of duty. The gloves deliver a debilitating but milder electric shock than the widely used Taser, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, frames the purchase as part of an effort to update officers’ field tools for safe, effective suspect apprehension.

In a statement responding to public outcry over the plan, which was first uncovered by The Associated Press, DHS officials emphasized that all equipment adopted by ICE undergoes rigorous review to ensure compliance with existing law enforcement policies and legal standards. The agency added that it continuously evaluates the operational needs of frontline officers to guarantee they have the resources required to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions.

But critics, ranging from sitting Democratic members of Congress to a former ICE director appointed under the Obama administration, argue the new gloves pose an unacceptable risk of misuse, particularly given longstanding concerns about the agency’s aggressive tactics and reduced training standards for new recruits. ICE has faced sustained scrutiny in recent months over a string of fatal shootings during enforcement operations, including the killing of two American citizens participating in anti-ICE protests in Minnesota earlier this year. The agency also drew backlash for steep monthly arrest numbers, with more than 51,000 immigration violation arrests recorded in July 2025 – the highest single-month total since President Donald Trump took office in January 2024, when he renewed his promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants.

Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost slammed the proposal in a post on X, arguing that the $20 million in taxpayer funding for the gloves is an unnecessary expansion of an already abusive force. “As if assaulting people and shooting people in the streets wasn’t enough, now they’re spending $20 million of YOUR taxpayer dollars on painful electric shock gloves for their masked, lawless goons,” Frost wrote, adding that “ICE must be stopped.”

John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under former Democratic President Barack Obama, acknowledged that frontline ICE agents face uniquely challenging work but shared deep unease about the gloves’ deployment amid reports of eroding training requirements. “Deploying this admittedly less than lethal technology, in an era when we’re really not all that interested in providing training to the officers about how to use that technology, really is alarming,” Sandweg told MSNBC. He warned that the tool could easily be misused against non-violent people who pose no threat, pointing to the scenario of a mother offering mild resistance to avoid separation from her children as a clear example of potential abuse.

Washington Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal echoed those concerns, noting that ICE has already targeted legal observers, peaceful protesters, and ordinary civilians going about daily activities like commuting to work or dropping children at school. “This won’t make anyone safer and in fact just gives ICE another dangerous tool to target citizens and immigrants alike,” she said on X.

The criticism comes as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already advanced more than 50 legal claims against the federal government on behalf of people and families across 17 states and Washington, D.C., who allege they were harmed by aggressive ICE enforcement actions. Critics say the adoption of shock gloves will only embolden agents to use excessive force against vulnerable populations, with little oversight to prevent misuse.

In a sharp new escalation of trade and tech tensions between Washington and Beijing, former President Donald Trump announced Thursday sweeping new tariffs of up to 100 percent on imported unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, the formal name for drones) and their core components. The move is explicitly designed to cut U.S. reliance on Chinese-dominated global drone supply chains, the White House confirmed in an official statement.

Under the new tariff structure, drones with a takeoff weight exceeding 25 kilograms that are equipped with sensitive capabilities deemed relevant to national security—including thermal imaging cameras and specialized docking systems—will face the full 100 percent import duty. Smaller, lighter drones, by contrast, will be subject to a lower 25 percent tariff. The statement argues the new duties will create incentives for expanded domestic U.S. production of drones and their parts, reducing American dependence on foreign manufacturing networks for the strategically critical technology.

Most of the new tariffs are scheduled to enter into force on September 3. According to Clayton Swope, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Analysis, the tariffs are primarily targeted at commercial and industrial-grade drones, with far less impact on small recreational drones used by hobbyists.

The policy builds on national security concerns that U.S. regulators have raised for months. Back in December 2025, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the body responsible for overseeing domestic telecommunications, argued that expanding domestic drone manufacturing would lower the risk of enemy drone attacks, service disruptions, unauthorized surveillance, unauthorized transfer of sensitive data off U.S. soil, and other UAS-related threats to American homeland security.

The FCC also highlighted that drones have inherent dual-use properties: they function as everyday commercial platforms, but can easily be repurposed as military or paramilitary sensors and weapons. Foreign-manufactured drones and components, the agency warned, could enable hostile actors to conduct long-term surveillance, steal data, and carry out destructive attacks across U.S. territory. The ongoing war in Ukraine has further underscored this risk, showing how readily available commercial and even consumer drones can be modified for offensive frontline operations.

For years, the Chinese drone manufacturing giant DJI has dominated the global market, holding more than two-thirds of global market share in recent years, according to multiple independent industry studies. The company has also been a top target of U.S. regulatory and political scrutiny for years. U.S. officials have repeatedly accused DJI of supplying equipment used to surveil ethnic minority groups in China, most notably the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.

Since 2022, DJI has been included on a U.S. government list of Chinese companies tied to the People’s Liberation Army, a designation that bars the firm from accessing sensitive American technology. In 2024, DJI launched a legal challenge to its placement on the list, repeatedly stating that it is not owned or controlled by any Chinese military body.

Joshua Steinman, a supply chain policy expert who previously served on the Trump administration’s own National Security Council, told Agence France-Presse that developing fully domestic U.S. drone manufacturing capacity, independent of Chinese parts or even raw materials, is a critical national priority.

The new U.S. tariff announcement comes in direct response to recent Chinese trade moves. Just last week, Beijing implemented its own restrictions on drone exports to the United States and blacklisted six U.S. companies, a retaliatory measure against earlier U.S. trade sanctions tied to forced labor and national security claims. That Chinese action followed just days after Washington imposed a new round of broad tariffs on goods from China and 59 other countries.

Tensions around strategically important advanced robotics and unmanned technology have been building rapidly in recent months. In late July 2026, the U.S. government added humanoid and quadruped robots to its import blacklist, barring entry of these products from targeted Chinese firms over what it called critical national security risks. Like the commercial drone sector, advanced robotics manufacturing is also dominated by Chinese industry, setting the stage for further escalation in the ongoing tech and trade standoff between the two global powers.

Early Friday morning, vote counting kicked off for one of the most unusual by-elections in recent UK political history, pitting high-profile hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage against Count Binface, a novelty candidate best known for wearing a waste bin as a helmet.

The snap poll was triggered last month when Farage abruptly resigned his newly won Clacton parliamentary seat, stepping down amid ongoing official scrutiny into undeclared political donations. Mainstream UK political parties all opted to skip the contest, dismissing the vote as a calculated stunt by Farage to deflect attention from the investigations into his finances. That decision left Farage to face off against Binface — the comedic alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey — alongside a record 32 other fringe candidates on the ballot paper. Counting was expected to continue overnight, with official results projected to be released by roughly 7 a.m. UK time Friday.

Before counting concluded, Farage took the step of declaring an early victory, telling UK broadcaster GB News just after midnight that he had won “fairly convincingly” during an election night event in Essex. Framing the contest as a battle between ordinary Clacton voters and the national political “establishment”, Farage claimed the result amounted to an overwhelming public endorsement. “I’ve managed to beat the establishment candidate,” he said. “This is an overwhelming endorsement of me. I have had enough of being judged by mainstream media, being called a criminal.”

But the contest has drawn widespread mockery, even among political observers, as the novelty candidate Binface has emerged as a surprisingly strong contender. Analysts predict Farage will ultimately hold the seat he first won during the 2024 general election, when he secured 46% of the vote to win a parliamentary seat on his eighth attempt at public office. However, experts also project Binface could capture an unprecedented 20% of the vote, a result that would mark a major embarrassment for Farage.

Political experts say Farage’s gambit to regain momentum has already backfired. “His ‘spoof’ contender was making him ‘look rather silly’,” Stijn van Kessel, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Even some local residents shared that sentiment. Twenty-three-year-old Michael, who was visiting Clacton-on-Sea on polling day, told reporters he was rooting for the joke candidate. “I think it’ll be a close one between Binface and Nigel. I would love to see Binface win,” he said.

Binface, who bills himself as an “intergalactic space warrior” from the fictional planet Sigma IX, leaned into the absurdity of the contest, posting on social media: “Bin day cometh.”

The by-election was triggered after Farage announced his surprise resignation on July 1, as parliamentary officials launched a probe into allegations that Farage and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice failed to properly declare large financial gifts. Both men deny any wrongdoing. The investigation centers on a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) donation from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. Separately, London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed it launched an investigation last year into unreported donations to Reform UK ahead of the 2024 general election. UK media reports have linked that probe to non-declared support from George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster and longtime Farage ally, and Cottrell’s mother.

The financial controversies have come as Reform UK’s standing in national opinion polls has slipped, after the party led national polling for 18 consecutive months. Farage has long been one of the most divisive figures in British politics, with roughly equal shares of the public holding strong positive and negative views of him.

Local voters have expressed widespread frustration with the by-election, with many dismissing it as a political farce. Many residents have criticized mainstream parties for skipping the contest, saying the decision disenfranchises local voters. “It’s a farce,” Paul, a local voter in his 50s, told AFP. He accused mainstream parties of “disrespecting the people of Clacton” by refusing to field candidates.

Even some local Reform UK supporters acknowledged the contest felt ridiculous, due to the long list of fringe candidates. “It’s a bit ridiculous,” local party campaigner Jane Embelton told AFP. “I think it’s all to make Nigel Farage look like an idiot, basically. But he doesn’t look like an idiot to me or his supporters.”

Turnout is projected to be significantly lower than the 59% turnout the constituency saw during the 2024 general election, when 80,000 registered voters went to the polls. Political analysts have downplayed the long-term national impact of the result, noting Clacton was one of the UK’s most pro-Brexit constituencies a decade ago, making it a stronghold for Farage’s brand of right-wing populism. Still, the unusual contest has drawn international attention and widespread amusement from political observers around the world.

If Farage wins the by-election as predicted, the parliamentary investigation into his finances will resume. If the probe finds he violated parliamentary rules and issues a suspension, it would trigger yet another by-election in the constituency.