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Russia sends fighter jets capable of firing hypersonic 'Kinzhal' missile to Syria for first time as part of Mediterranean training

Jonny Tickle
RT
Fri, 25 Jun 2021 13:54 UTC
Kinzhal
© Kremlin.ru
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal. 2018 Moscow Victory Day Parade
For the first-ever time, Russia has deployed two MiG-31K interceptor aircraft to Syria. The fighter is capable of carrying the much-hyped hypersonic Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, which has a range of around 2,000km.

The Mikoyan MiG-31, first built during the Soviet Union, is a supersonic aircraft currently in operation with the armed forces in Russia and Kazakhstan. The MiG-31K planes, the variant sent to Middle Eastern countries, were upgraded in 2018 to enable them to carry the state-of-the-art Kinzhal missile.

The Kinzhal - which means 'dagger' in Russian - can fly at Mach 10 speed and is said to have the ability to perform evasive maneuvers in-flight. It can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

Comment: See also:

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Wolf

'Hypocrisy': UK's married health sec caught on CCTV kissing office aide, breaking social distancing rules

Alan McGuinness
Sky News
Fri, 25 Jun 2021 18:11 UTC
Hancock affair

Matt Hancock leaving 10 Downing Street with Gina Coladangelo in May
Labour has accused Boris Johnson of being "spineless" after Downing Street said the prime minister accepts Matt Hancock's apology for breaking social distancing rules and "considers the matter closed".


Comment: Bojo would understand, he cheated on his wife too.


The health secretary has been backed by Number 10 after he released a statement saying he had "let people down" and was "very sorry" after pictures emerged of him kissing an aide.

But a Labour spokeswoman said: "This matter is definitely not closed, despite the government's attempts to cover it up."

Comment: RT reports:
'Astonishing double standards': Brits outraged after BoJo accepts Health Secretary Matt Hancock's apology for snogging aide

Some Brits are furious, given Hancock's history of zero-tolerance on such encounters.

Legions of Twitter commenters weren't as forgiving as Johnson, especially as Hancock supported the resignation last year of Professor Neil Ferguson, who was caught breaching the lockdown restrictions he helped draft to meet his married lover.

The Labour Party led the charge against Hancock, calling out his double standards on Ferguson and demanding "he must go."





Amid calls for Hancock's sacking, some called for an investigation into his hiring of Coladangelo, a lobbyist and one-time unpaid adviser to the minister, to a taxpayer-funded position. Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner accused Hancock of breaking the Ministerial Code with this appointment.



Coladangelo likely faces a rocky time at home too, where she is married to multi-millionaire fashion tycoon Oliver Tress.


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X

Fulton County election official admits chain of custody documents missing for 2020 absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes

Laura Baigert
The Georgia Star News
Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
Mariska Bodison
© Fulton County Board of Elections
Mariska Bodison, Board Secretary for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections
In a stunning admission about the critical chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes in the November 3, 2020 election, a Fulton County election official told The Georgia Star News on Wednesday that "a few forms are missing" and that "some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced."

A Star News analysis of drop box ballot transfer forms for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes provided by Fulton County in response to an Open Records Request showed that 385 transfer forms out of an estimated 1,565 transfer forms Fulton County said should have been provided are missing - a number that is significantly greater than "a few" by any objective standard.

On Sunday, The Star News published a story which included the files containing digital images of the 1,180 transfer forms that Fulton County did provide. Those digital images can be viewed here.

This is the first time that any election official at either the state or county level from a key battleground state has made an admission of significant error in election procedures for the November 3, 2020 election.

The admission of missing chain of custody documents by a Fulton County official is important for several reasons that cut to the very core of public confidence in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election:

Comment: A grand mess and to think this is only ONE county's partial self-discovery!

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Bullseye

Washington getting Israel to condemn China over Xinjiang is an astonishing act of hypocrisy and projection

Tom Fowdy
RT
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:52 UTC
Xinjiang
© Wikipedia
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
How fast did the West forget about the crisis in Gaza last month? Anyway, now it is out of the way, the unending narrative concerning Xinjiang has come back to the fore, but the US is already making blunders.

Earlier this week the US and Canada worked to assemble a coalition of countries to call out China at the United Nations on the matter of human rights, demanding a probe over the autonomous region. Amongst the 40 or so countries who signed up included, of all countries, Israel, reportedly at the request of Washington. This has seen Tel Aviv take a new position on international human rights that it had not previously considered, after adopting a new Prime Minister in Naftali Bennett.

Coming just weeks after the sustained bombing of Gaza and condemnation around the world, Israel's incorporation into such a "coalition" is an astonishing act of hypocrisy, projection and double standards. It makes a mockery out of international human rights, not least regarding Muslims, and is a huge strategic blunder on Washington's part which will backfire in the Islamic world, and even amongst some in the West. As this saga takes place in Geneva, the biggest irony was that not a single Muslim country, be it in the Middle East, Africa or Southeast Asia, joined the statement regarding Xinjiang. In fact, most major Islamic nations actually joined a counter-coalition of at least 65 countries supporting China's position.

Comment: Israel has a fixed and immoral compass, the point always aimed at itself. The idea it would strike out for right action is dubious unless it held a significant payoff.

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Star of David

Bennett appears to hint at Israeli involvement in attack on Iran nuclear site

Judah Ari Gross
The Times of Israel
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:35 UTC
Bennett
© AP/Ariel Schalit.
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett • Hatzerim Airbase • June 24, 2021
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to hint at Israel's role in a recent attack on an Iranian nuclear site during a speech at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots on Thursday. Bennett, in his speech at the IAF's Hatzerim Air Base, outside Beersheba said:
"Our enemies know — not from statements, but from actions — that we are much more determined and much more clever, and that we do not hesitate to act when it is needed."
His remarks came a day after an alleged drone attack on an Iranian centrifuge production facility outside Tehran, which reportedly damaged the site.

In his speech, one of his first since taking over as premier earlier this month, Bennett referred to Israel's strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor nearly 40 years ago. The attack — dubbed Operation Opera — was the first implementation of what has become known as the Begin Doctrine, named for then-prime minister Menachem Begin, which favors taking military action — unilaterally, if necessary — in order to prevent enemy countries in the Middle East from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Bennett said Israel's prime ministers have always had a "sacred responsibility not to allow an existential threat to the State of Israel. Then it was Iraq, today it is Iran."

Comment: See also: Iran: 'Sabotage attack' on civilian nuclear center thwarted

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Arrow Down

Biden administration walks back US recognition of Golan Heights as Israeli Territory

Adam Kredo
The Washington Free Beacon
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:30 UTC
Israeli soldier Golan Heights
© Getty Images
Israeli soldier near Moshay Alonei HaBashan in Golan Heights
The Biden administration is walking back the United States' historic recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights region along Israel's northern border, a significant blow to the Jewish state and one of the Trump administration's signature foreign policy decisions.

The Trump administration declared the territory — seized by Israel from Syria in 1967 and later annexed by the country — to be wholly part of the Jewish state in 2019. Then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo took a trip to the area in 2020 and reaffirmed that America formally abandoned a decades-long policy of considering the area occupied.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken first raised questions about the Biden administration's view on the matter in February, when he would not say if his State Department continues to abide by the former administration's decision. At the time, Blinken would only say the Golan Heights "remains of real importance to Israel's security," but that its formal status remains unclear. Pressed on the issue by the Washington Free Beacon, a State Department official said the territory belongs to no one and control could change depending on the region's ever-shifting dynamics.

The shift in policy is already causing outrage among Republican lawmakers who backed the Trump administration's decision and hoped to see it continue. It is also likely to rankle Israeli leaders of all political stripes, the plurality of whom say the Golan Heights is absolutely vital to Israel's security in light of persistent threats from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon and other militant forces stationed in war-torn Syria.

Comment: A tightly wound confluence of circumstance, policy and dominance undergird the core of this problem. Were Israel's treatment and acknowledgement of Palestinians heritage and rights to be upheld, and Palestinians inclusive in the decisions, many of the current issues would fade. The Biden administration sees a golden opportunity for leverage, the only operative it needs going forward. 'What for' doesn't matter.

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Footprints

Aproximately 650 troops will remain in Afghanistan after US completes pullout

Morgan Artyukhina
Sputnik
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 22:02 UTC
Afghan group
© Reuters/Stringer
Armed group ready to fight against the Taliban in support of Afghan security forces
Kabul, Afghanistan • June 23, 2021
Roughly 650 US troops will stay behind in Afghanistan to provide security for US diplomats in the country after the main force pulls out in July, according to US officials whole anonymously spoke with the Associated Press. The US was supposed to completely pull out by May 1, but later unilaterally extended the deadline to September 11.

According to the report, the main American force in Afghanistan will complete its withdrawal in the next two weeks, but several hundred troops will remain as part of a security detail, particularly at the US embassy and at Kabul airport, the latter of which is presently guarded by Turkish troops.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday that Ankara would not send any more troops to defend Kabul airport, but US Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seemed confident a deal would soon be reached. "I feel very comfortable that security at the Kabul airport will be maintained and the Turks will be a part of that," he told the AP.

The news agency noted that Washington had agreed to leave behind a Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) system, an adaptation of the naval Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) used to intercept projectiles at close range with a high volume of fire. A C-RAM also guards the Green Zone in central Baghdad, where the US embassy in Iraq is located.

Comment: Thanks to Biden: 'Washington has also prepared to evacuate potentially tens of thousands of Afghans who aided the US occupation as they leave.' Presumably they will infiltrate American communities as per Biden's 'new rules'.

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Stop

Senator Ted Cruz introduces bill to block federal funding for Critical Race Theory training


Human Events
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
Ted Cruz
© Alex Wong/GettyImages
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a piece of legislation Thursday to ban funding for critical race theory training in the workplace.

The End CRT Act would prohibit federal funding for any agency or recipient to teach critical race theory in workplace training. Rep Burgess Owens introduced a similar bill in the House in May of 2021.
"The federal government has no right to force a political agenda onto Americans, especially one that aims to tear down our institutions and divide us based on race. Critical race theory originated out of the critical race studies movement. It is a Marxist ideology that sees the world as a battle, not between the classes - as classical Marxism does - but between the races. This is inherently bigoted.

"On President Biden's first day in office, he rescinded the Trump administration's commonsense executive order ensuring no government funding goes to anti-American or racist and sexist training, like CRT, in the workplace.

"President Biden's decision was unsurprising but shows the democratic party will stop at nothing to indoctrinate Americans. I am proud to introduce this bill to block federal funding for CRT and ensure the U.S. government doesn't contribute to this radical ideology."

Comment: Finally some movement on this issue, and as usual, too little too late. Spreading geometrically across the nation, the best we can hope for amounts to engarde awareness for those who see and oppose the danger. As we have reached one more level of societal divide, the clear intent is to conquer by war on the psyche.

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Dominoes

Dominic Raab warned MoD about Royal Navy's Crimea plans


The Telegraph
Fri, 25 Jun 2021 19:50 UTC
HMS Defender
© Sergey Smolentsev/REUTERS
HMS Defender, seen here arriving at the Black Sea port of Odessa
Dominic Raab raised concerns about the Ministry of Defence's plans for a Royal Navy warship to sail through contested waters around Crimea this week, The Telegraph has learned.

The Foreign Secretary warned in advance that Moscow could seek to exploit HMS Defender's voyage through the Black Sea under the route proposed by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, it is understood.

Defence sources claimed the decision was escalated to Downing Street for the Prime Minister to make the final call. Instructions were passed to the Type-45 Destroyer on Monday.

The discussions within Government show that risks were identified in the proposed mission, although all parties are said to have supported the right of a British warship to conduct a legal innocent passage through the sea.

A diplomatic row flared up between London and Moscow on Wednesday over the warship's route within 12 miles of the Crimean shoreline.
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Clipboard

Iranian nuclear facility targeted in attack was on list of targets Israel gave to US

Dave DeCamp
Antiwar.com
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
Iran nuclear site
© Shutterstock
Iran said it thwarted the attack, but Israeli media claims damage was done to the centrifuge facility

Iran is downplaying a Wednesday attack that targeted a centrifuge production building in a small city outside of Tehran. Iranian officials say the attack was thwarted, while Israeli media is reporting damage was done.

When it comes to covert attacks inside Iran, Israel is the obvious suspect, although Israeli officials rarely take credit. According to The New York Times, the centrifuge facility, which was reportedly targeted by a small quadcopter drone, was on a list of targets Israel presented to the US back in 2020.
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