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Pirates

US taxpayers were double-billed tens of millions of dollars in grants to Wuhan labs: report

Josh Christenson
New York Post
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:17 UTC
francis collins fauci wuhan pandemic covid NIH
Fauci and then-NIH director Francis Collins “prompted” a scientific study to debunk the lab leak theory
The US government may have paid twice for grants it doled out to fund research at labs in Wuhan, China, according to a newly launched federal probe that found tens of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent payments.

The "risky" projects bankrolled by the National Institutes of Health and the US Agency for International Development would have helped pay for medical supplies, equipment, travel expenses, and salaries at the Wuhan labs, according to CBS News, which broke the story Monday.

Among them was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where taxpayers funded controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that federal officials now admit Among them was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where taxpayers funded controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that federal officials now admit may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Briefcase

Russia to expand 'fake news' laws


RT
Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:16 UTC
russian soldiers ukraine transport
© TwitterRussian army troops
A bill introducing stricter punishment for disinformation about the nation's military operations has been passed by the State Duma

Russian laws protecting military service members from slander and "fake news" are to be expanded. Amendments were approved by the State Duma on Tuesday, which are intended to protect the country's military from disinformation attacks amid the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.

Russia already has laws which prohibit knowingly publishing false information about its military forces or slander against service members. The two linked bills passed by the lower house of parliament will apply the same rules in respect of volunteer units, organizations and individuals assisting the armed forces.

Comment: A fine line to walk. Pregozhin has made a good point. There is a difference between criticism of questionable decisions on the part of the military leadership, and propaganda meant to undermine a nation's unity. One need only look at the state America is in to see the difference.

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Light Saber

The China and Russia 'no limits friendship' 2.0

Salman Rafi Sheikh
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 15 Mar 2023 08:04 UTC
putin xi jinping
Many in the West have been predicting a downturn in the China-Russia alliance in the wake of the ongoing Russian Special Military Operations in Ukraine. A recent article in the Foreign Affairs magazine pointed out 'key' points of disagreement between Beijing and Moscow to highlight the obvious 'limits' of the otherwise 'no limits' friendship. According to such projections, we should have seen conflict between both countries. But what we are actually seeing is the exact opposite of this prediction: China and Russia recently reaffirmed their 'no limits' friendship, an alliance that originally started almost a year ago ('no-limits 1.0') and is now growing to the next level as 'no-limits' 2.0. This reaffirmation has caused some trouble in the Western world, as the latter has already started to scramble allies to 'punish' China for its persistent support for Russia against the combined strength of NATO.

As reports in the mainstream media show, the US is already consulting with its G7 allies to impose new sanctions on China if the latter extends any support to Russia over Ukraine. While the official projections point out the possibility of China's military support for Russia, in reality, this politics of sanction applies to any type of Chinese support. More importantly, the fact that the US is considering imposing new sanctions on China for the latter's support for Russia once again reinforces the need to fundamentally change the global political order, an order that allows some states (NATO countries) to extend support to their ally (Ukraine) but punishes those (China) who dare take a different position and extend support to the other party (Russia).

In this context, China's decision to extend its friendship with Russia is dangerous and alarming for the US and its NATO allies precisely because it will make it a lot harder for them to defeat Russia, a country that has shown remarkable resilience against the combined military and economic onslaught of the entire West for over a year and achieved many of its objectives in Ukraine.
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Rocket

Former US natsec advisor: destroy Taiwan semiconductor factories if China invades

Alexander Rubinstein
The Grayzone
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 07:19 UTC
A growing body of evidence suggests that the US would blow up the global economy to prevent China from laying claim to Taiwan's semiconductor factories.

biden TSMC
Former White House National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien has hinted at a sinister US contingency plan in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Rather than see Taiwan's semiconductor factories fall into the hands of the Communist Party of China, the US and its allies would simply pull a Nordstream.

"The United States and its allies are never going to let those factories fall into Chinese hands," O'Brien told Semafor, a news outlet that has been funded by jailed Democratic financier Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother. O'Brien went on to compare the destruction of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) to Winston Churchill's bombing of a French naval fleet after the country's surrender to Nazi Germany.

Semiconductors made in Taiwan are necessary for the functioning of everything from smartphones to cars. Taiwan manufactures around 65 percent of the world's semiconductors and close to 90 percent of advanced chips. Annually, a third of all new computing power generated globally is fabricated in Taiwan. The US National Security Council estimates that the loss of TSMC "could disrupt the world economy to the tune of more than $1 trillion."

As tensions rise over the Taiwan Strait, the US Treasury Department has published at least two studies on "the overall market impact of an invasion," while the National Security Council is conducting a study on "semiconductors and US dependencies on TSMC."

Comment: See also: US won't let China take Taiwan chip-makers 'intact'

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Newspaper

Only through 'military means' can Russia achieve its goals in Ukraine - Moscow


Press TV
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 18:55 UTC
peskov
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov
The Kremlin says only through "military means" Russia can "achieve its goals" in Ukraine, more than a year after Moscow began the war in the ex-Soviet republic.

At a press conference on Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the moment there were no preconditions for the transition of the process into a peaceful course in Ukraine.

"For us, the absolute priority continues and will always remain the achievement of the goals set. At the moment they can only be achieved by military means," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Enter The Dragon: China Sides With Russia Against America



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Magnify

US military drone crashes into Black Sea after being followed by Russian jets

Phil Stewart
Reuters
Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:36 UTC
reaper drone
MQ-9 surveillance drone
A U.S military MQ-9 surveillance drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets, in the first such incident since Russia's invasion of Ukraine over a year ago.

The Pentagon said that one of the Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the drone, making it inoperable, while Russia's defense ministry blamed "sharp maneuvering" of the unmanned drone for the crash and said that its jets did not make contact.

Although no lives were lost, it was a reminder of the risk of direct confrontation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, which Moscow invaded over a year ago and which Western allies have supported with intelligence and weapons.


Comment: The West has admitted it is directing Ukraine's forces, and Germany's minister recently admitted that the West 'is at war with Russia': US & EU special forces and the CIA ARE on the ground in Ukraine after all - Coordinating Ukraine's weapons, training, and 'attack app'


Comment: The drone allegedly took off from Romania:

romania drone us
The US Naval Institute reports on how the US might recover the drone:
[...]

However, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the government of Turkey closed off the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to warships from any country, whether or not they border the Black Sea, raising questions if a Navy salvage ship would be permitted to recover the aircraft.

Those restrictions might not apply to a commercial ship with a recovery team aboard, said Sal Mercogliano, chair of Campbell University's Department of History, Criminal Justice and Politics and a merchant mariner told USNI News on Tuesday.

"What I assume they'll do is charter something and take it to the Black Sea or charter something in the Black Sea," he said. "As long as its non-military they don't seem to have any issues."

NATO member Romania is a Black Sea nation and the Navy has taken on sailors and equipment while operating in the region in the past.

[...]

Since late 2021, the U.S. has positioned an aircraft carrier in the nearby Mediterranean and stepped up flights along NATO's eastern flank along with U.S. Air Force and allied aircraft. That includes unmanned flights over the Black Sea.

"These aircraft had been flying over the Black Sea region for some time to include before the current conflict started," Ryder said. "It is an important and busy international waterway. And so it is not an uncommon mission for us to be flying in international airspace."

The downing of the MQ-9 follows at least two of the same type of drones getting shot down over Syria, Bryan Clark, an analyst with the Hudson Institute told USNI News on Tuesday.

"The practice of the U.S. has been not to retaliate against attacks against UAVs," he said.

In terms of salvage, "the law is fuzzy on this," he said. "If it has no human operator and in international waters or airspace, you can argue that it's salvage."
The following is a snippet from a Russian news station reporting on the incident:





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Pirates

Israeli bankers transferred $1 billion out of Silicon Valley Bank over to 2 of Israel's largest banks right before collapse

Frank Bergman
Slay News
Tue, 14 Mar 2023 09:02 UTC
Silicon Valley Bank
Bankers in Israel were able to successfully transfer $1 billion in funds from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) right before it collapsed on Friday, according to reports.

The Times of Israel is reporting that the country's two largest banks, Bank Leumi and Bank Hapoalim, were able to move the money before it was seized by the feds.

The funds were transferred to bank accounts in Israel.

Comment: See also:


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Magnify

India vs. the media: How Modi became a darling of the domestic press and a pariah for Western journalists

Joydeep Sen Gupta
RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:50 UTC
Narendra Modi
© SANJAY KANOJIA / AFPNarendra Modi
The New York Times has fired a fresh salvo at India's right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its muscular Hindutva policies aimed at neutralizing Islamist separatists in the troubled Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) region.

The US outlet, which has found itself at odds with the Modi administration since it came to power in 2014, mounted a fresh two-pronged attack with two articles on March 8. In doing so, it provoked stinging rebukes from the Indian government.
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Chess

Armenia fears withdrawal of Russian-led alliance - PM


RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:09 UTC
CSTO member-states
© Sputnik / Sergey GuneevLeaders of CSTO member-states during a summit in Yerevan in 2022
Armenia does not want to leave the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stressed.

"It is not that Armenia is leaving the CSTO, the CSTO is leaving Armenia, which is of a great concern to us," Pashinyan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Armenia, which is locked in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, has been reducing its involvement with the CSTO, which incorporates Russia and former Soviet Republics Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

In January, Pashinyan warned that he might ask the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh to protect its ethnic-Armenian population after the five-year mandate of Russia's peacekeeping contingent there runs out in 2025.
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Eye 1

Best of the Web: France enters stage 2 of its multi-nation war games - troops staging mock battles on real city streets & amongst civilians in ominous urban warfare training scenario

Emma Helfrich
The Drive
Tue, 14 Mar 2023 15:52 UTC
nato orion
Gunfire echoed down the streets of Cahors as a military exercise provided extremely realistic urban combat training among the populace.
In what was truly a bizarre scene, soldiers belonging to the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas filled the populated streets of Cahors in southern France. The sound of blank ammunition rounds being fired off echoed down bustling avenues as locals casually strolled by and life went on seemingly as normal as the mock battle unfolded around them.

While it looked like a war was being fought in Cahors, what was really happening was a hyper-realistic training scenario that was part of a much larger set of multi-national exercises that are ongoing in France.

While this may be the most realistic military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) training we have ever seen based on the very un-canned setting, it serves as another reminder that militaries are racing to ready themselves for fighting in huge cities — with all their unique impediments and tactical opportunities — which, according to the Pentagon, is where future wars are likely to take place.

Comment: ORION is just the latest military exercise where Western regions appear to be the focus of a conflict, and there's reason to believe that some of its civilians are who are viewed as the opposition.

As an example, Australia's military recently released a recruitment video which shows their troops train for how to 'control' civilian protesters:


For more examples: The full video of the recruitment advert above:




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