Puppet MastersS


Colosseum

US can't build its own LNG carrier ships - Navy Secretary

LNG Carrier
LNG Carrier
US companies continue to rely on foreign-flagged ships to deliver their Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe.

No shipyards in the United States can build carrier ships capable of transporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro acknowledged in a congressional testimony on Wednesday.

"We've lost that art here in the United States. We can't even build our own LNG ships here in the United States," Del Toro told the US House Armed Services Committee.

According to shipbuilding records, the last time a US shipyard produced an LNG tanker was in 1980. In total, 16 LNG ships were built in the United States between 1977 and 1980.

Comment: That's not great news for Europeans, such as those in the UK, whose leadership conspired with the US to blow up their gas lifeline, the Nord Stream pipeline. These same ailing nations aren't exactly endearing themselves to some of the world's most prolific shipbuilders, either, such as Russia and China.

That said, the issue might be moot anyway what with the US considering whether it might just cut energy-starved Europe off entirely: Biden's suspension of LNG exports challenged by 16 states


Nuke

Russia's nuclear drills are response to West's 'shameless' policies - Moscow

Antonov
© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesRussian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov
Russia's decision to conduct tactical nuclear weapons drills is a forced response to the "shameless and aggressive" policies of the Collective West, which creates security threats for Russia and its citizens, Moscow's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, stated on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a snap exercise in the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Southern Military District, which borders Ukraine. The drill is intended as a warning to the US and its allies not to escalate the Ukraine conflict any further, both the Foreign and Defense Ministries in Moscow said in public statements.

According to Antonov, the US and its allies are constantly beefing up supplies of increasingly deadly weapons to Ukraine designed to "kill Russian people" and attack the territory of the country.
"Step by step they are abandoning their previously declared 'self-restraints' in the hybrid war unleashed against us. Roughly speaking, they are trying to 'simmer' our country."

Comment: Escalations? No winners, no rewards.


Nuke

UN pushes Iran for 'concrete' cooperation on atomic programme

2 guys
© Atta Kenare/AFPIran's Mohammad Eslami, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi • Joint news conference in Isfahan
The head of the United Nations nuclear body has called on Iran to increase its efforts to make cooperation tangible and "concrete".

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi urged Tehran on Tuesday to adopt "concrete" measures to foster collaboration. The UN is seeking to re-establish oversight of Iran's atomic activities but has met various setbacks over how to implement a deal struck last year. However, officials on both sides suggested that there is some distance between their positions.

At a news conference in the Iranian city of Isfahan, Grossi said he had proposed in talks with Iranian officials:
"To focus on very practical and tangible measures that can be implemented in order to accelerate cooperation. What we are looking at is concrete measures that could make this [the deal] operational."
Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran insisted that the talks with Grossi had been positive and productive:
"We continue interactions over unresolved issues. The important point is that Mr Grossi takes the necessary actions to settle the problems that are mainly political."

Comment: Grossi: "Same time next year?"


Folder

UK Ministry of Defence payroll data exposed in data breach, claims 'foreign state' may be to blame

ministry of defence
The UK Government confirmed today that a threat actor recently breached the country's Ministry of Defence and gained access to part of the Armed Forces payment network.

The attacked system contained personal data belonging to active and reserve personnel as well as some recently retired veterans.

MoD core network unaffected

In a statement to the House of Commons today, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) identified the intrusion "in recent days."

Immediately after learning of the compromise, the MoD isolated the system to prevent the intrusion from spreading and stopped processing all payments.

Despite this, the incident did not have a significant impact on salaries, expense payments, and veterans' pensions. "I can confirm in the meantime all April salaries have been paid," said Shapps.

Comment: It's probably no coincidence that this hack comes on the heels of another announcement, seemingly intended to prime the population for incidents of this kind: NATO accuses Russia of 'hybrid and malign' activities on alliance's territories

See also: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group


Stock Down

Best of the Web: Drowning in debt: The paralysis at the heart of the US fiscal crisis

us government debt
Washington is doing nothing about its deteriorating finances because there is nothing it can do without risking major upheaval

It can appear puzzling why at certain times in history a government facing a looming crisis simply does not address it. The problems accumulate in plain view while little is done to actually solve them. The human imagination being what it is, this inaction is inevitably attributed to some mix of corruption, malfeasance, and incompetence. And certainly the road to any system-level crisis is strewn with missteps and short-sighted policies. But there comes a point when the horizon of possibility has closed and there is simply nothing a government can do without unleashing forces that could easily overwhelm it.

In the strange and torpid final years of Tsarist rule in Russia, the unfolding crisis that would eventually result in the Russian Revolution seemed immobilized in a state of suspension as the country's major actors recoiled from taking decisive actions for fear of detonating the very cataclysm they had sought to avoid. Much has been made of the weakness and indecision of Nicholas II, but by those fateful last years the anachronistic Romanoff dynasty was collapsing and little could be done to stop it.

Star of David

Will the Rafah assault finally break Netanyahu?

Bejamin Netanyahu
© AP Photo / Maya AlleruzzoIsraeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu
Israel's new large-scale offensive is being criticized all over the world, but the PM may still turn the situation to his advantage

It has been seven months since the tragic attack by Palestinian radical groups on Israeli territory. That strike was incomparable to any other since the founding of the Jewish state in terms of methods and the number of Israeli casualties. However, the Israeli response turned out to be even more tragic and aggressive.

The Interministerial Committee of Israel's 37th government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and formed on October 11, 2023, to manage Israel's military operation in Gaza, increasingly threatens to set the entire global community against the Jewish state.

Attention

A tale of two sovereigns, a lackey and a nanny

Xi and Chicken Shit
© Public Domain
Startling mirror images swirl around two major developments this week directly inbuilt in the Grand Narrative that shapes my latest book, Eurasia v. NATOstan, recently published in the U.S.: Xi Jinping's visit to Paris and the inauguration of Vladimir Putin's new term in Moscow.

Inevitably, this is a contrasting tale of Sovereigns - the comprehensive Russia-China strategic partnership - and lackeys: the NATOstan/EU vassals.

Xi, the quintessential hermetic guest, is quite sharp at reading a table - and we're not talking about Gallic gastronomic finesse. The minute he sat at the Paris table he got the Big Picture. This was not a tete-a-tete with Le Petit Roi, Emmanuel Macron. This was a threesome because Toxic Medusa Ursula von der Leyen, more appropriately defined as Pustula von der Lugen, had inserted herself in the plot.

Nothing was lost in translation for Xi: this was graphic illustration that Le Petit Roi, the leader of a third-rate former Western colonial power, enjoys zero "strategic autonomy". The decisions that matter come from the Kafkaesque Eurocracy of the European Commission (EC), led by his Nanny, the Medusa, and directly relayed by the Hegemon.

Le Petit Roi spent the whole of Xi's Gallic time babbling like an infant on Putin's "destabilizations" and trying to "engage China, which objectively enjoys sufficient levers to change Moscow's calculus in its war in Ukraine".

Obviously no pubescent adviser at the Elysee Palace - and there's quite a crowd - dared to break the news to Le Petit Roi about the strength, depth and reach of the Russia-China strategic partnership.

So it was up to his Nanny to volunteer out loud the fine print on the "Monsieur Xi comes to France" adventure.

Faithfully parroting Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen in her recent, disastrous Beijing incursion, the Nanny directly threatened the superpowered hermetic guest: you are exceeding in "over-capacity", you are over-producing; and if you don't stop it, we will sanction you to death.

So much for European "strategic autonomy". Moreover, it's idle to dwell on what can only be described as suicidal stupidity.

Cult

NATO state Lithuania says it's ready to send troops to Ukraine for a 'training mission', dismisses nuke threat

Simonyte Ingrida
© CopyrightLithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. Lithuania is waiting for Kiev's request to send in military trainers, the nation's prime minister has said.
Lithuania is prepared to deploy soldiers on Ukrainian soil for a training mission, the country's prime minister Ingrida Simonyte told the Financial Times on Wednesday.


Comment: Surely they mean a suicide mission?


French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea of having NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine in February, arguing that nothing should be excluded to prevent a Russian victory in the conflict. The Lithuanian government has similarly stated that there should be no red lines in efforts to aid Kiev.

Speaking to the British newspaper, Simonyte said she has parliamentary permission to deploy soldiers in Ukraine, but has not received a request from Kiev. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal told Canadian media last week that his nation would be "glad" to see Western intervention "if the time comes."


Comment: Ukraine has lost well over 500,000 men, it's desperate for cannon fodder.


Comment: Meanwhile Hungary and Italy denounced sending troops to Ukraine as dangerous.


Bizarro Earth

SOTT Focus: UN's Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future Will Rapidly Expand the Technocratic Takeover

Summit of the Future
The United Nations will meet in September for the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, as well as the highly-anticipated " Summit of the Future" where nations will sign the so-called "Pact for the Future". The Pact is expected to call for declaring a "planetary emergency". What does this agreement and its policies mean for the future of individual and national sovereignty?

By the end of September, the United Nations member states may vote to radically alter the UN itself, what some are calling UN 2.0, and the very nature of how nation-states make decisions regarding the future of the planet. The UN will convene for the 79th session of the General Assembly in New York City starting on September 10th in New York City. The high-level general debate will begin on the 24th of September.

Although the UNGA is an annual meeting, this year's gathering will be unique because of the addition of the Summit of the Future, a UN sponsored event taking place in NYC on the 22nd and 23rd of September. The summit has been in the making since at least 2022. It is the latest attempt by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to "rally the troops", and garner more support for a rapid completion of the Agenda 2030 goals set by the UN in 2015.

Comment: Listen to the author of the article, Derrick Broze on Redacted:




Chess

Xi marks 25th anniversary of NATO atrocity

FILE PHOTO: China's President Xi Jinping.
© Mohammed Badra / POOL / AFPFILE PHOTO: China's President Xi Jinping.
The US bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on this day in 1999

President Xi Jinping of China arrived in Serbia on Tuesday for a two-day visit, landing on the 25th anniversary of the deadly US airstrike on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

The strike, which came during the 1999 NATO air war in support of ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, killed three Chinese nationals and injured 20 more. Beijing never fully accepted Washington's apology that the strike had been a mistake caused by "old maps."

Comment: See also: China wants to preserve and strengthen its foothold in and around the EU and is investing diplomatic effort where it is worth it

For more information about what happened during NATO's 1999 campaign, though not specifically about the bombing of the Chinese embassy, see NATO's illegal 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia 'a huge tragedy' - Putin It and the comments contributes to the background for the conflict between the US and other global actors that we witness today.